Credit: Shutterstock photoFinally, the long-drawn copyright battle between Oracle Corporation ( ORCL ) and SAP SE ( SAP ) has come to an end. Both the companies have finally agreed on an amount of $359 million, to be paid by SAP to settle the copyright infringement dispute.
In 2007, Oracle sued SAP, alleging that the latter's Texas-based subsidiary TomorrowNow had illegally downloaded millions of copyrighted documents and programs from its customer connection website.
Consequently, in 2010, a jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages based on the value of a hypothetical license that SAP should have negotiated for using Oracle's copyrighted software.
However, SAP filed a suit claiming that the amount should not be based on hypothetical licenses but on facts. In 2011, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton rejected the previous claim and settled the amount at $272 million.
Oracle, thereafter, appealed to the 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals to revert the amount to the original $1.3 billion. The court considered Oracle's appeal and agreed that the second amount was too low. However, earlier this year, Oracle was ordered to either accept $356.7 million or file for another claim.
Oracle accepted the jury's option and settled the case for $359 million ($356.7 million plus $2.5 million in interest).
We believe that Oracle's action reflects its initiative to improve business ties that will help it to counter intensifying competition from the likes of IBM Corp. ( IBM ) and Red Hat Technologies ( RHT ).
Moreover, the speedy adoption of engineered systems and cloud suites will drive Oracle's top-line growth. In addition, the strategy of providing end-to-end solutions will further attract new customers over the long run.
Oracle currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
