Friday, 23 March 2007

Oracle sues SAP over Pilfered Software

Business software giant Oracle sued rival SAP in US federal court Thursday, charging the German firm with the online looting of its software libraries to gain a competitive advantage.

California- based Oracle urged the US District Court in San Francisco to hold a jury trail in the case and immediately order SAP and its subsidiaries to return purloined programs and software fixes or “patches”.

“This case is about corporate theft on a grand scale, committed by the largest German software company- a conglomerate known as SAP,” Oracle attorney Christopher Hockett wrote in the lawsuit.

“SAP is engaged in systematic, illegal access to and taking from, Oracle’s computerized customer support systems. Through this scheme, SAP has stolen thousands of proprietary, copyrighted software products and other confidential materials.”

SAP told AFP that the company is declining to comment on the lawsuit until its attorney had time to review the 44-page filing.

The suit contends that SAP responded to Oracles’ 2004 purchase of PeopleSoft by buying Texas-based software company TomorrowNow and embarking on a law-breaking conspiracy last year to steal Oracle’s customers and technology.

SAP bulked up its sales force to aggressively woo away Oracle customers, then used the client’s support accounts and passwords to raid Oracle’s software databases, Oracle charged in court.

Oracle said in a filing that it traced more than 10,000 unauthorized downloads of customer “software and support materials” to computers in Bryan, Texas, where SAP has a US branch office and TomorrowNow is based.

Oracle said it uncovered the “conspiracy” after noticing unusual spikes of download activity in November and December at its password-protected support website for users of its PeopleSoft and J.D Edwards software.

Oracle said it will seek unspecified cash damages and compensation at trial.