Oracle sues SAP

Oracle accuses SAP of 'corporate theft'

Software giant Oracle has launched legal proceedings against rival SAP, stepping up the battle between the two for dominance in the business applications sector.

Oracle is alleging that SAP engaged in ‘systematic, illegal access to - and taking from - Oracle’s computerised customer support system’.

‘SAP has stolen thousands of proprietary, copyrighted software products and other confidential materials that Oracle developed to service its own customers,’ said documents filed in the US Federal Court .

‘SAP gained repeated and unauthorised access, in many cases by use of pretextual customer log-in credentials, to Oracle’s proprietary, password-protected customer support web site.

‘This case is about corporate theft on a grand scale.’

The case is unusual in that rather than focusing on product-related intellectual property (IP), it focuses on IP around a support and service offering, according to Ovum analyst David Mitchell.

‘Support services are one of the highest margin parts of a software business, and companies will act to protect profitable businesses,’ he said.

‘Many customers of both SAP and Oracle must now be wondering whether they have inadvertently benefited from this breach.’

Initial analysis suggests there should be no major causes for concern, says Mitchell, but there are some areas of doubt.

‘From the details that have emerged, there appears to be no accusation that SAP has embedded Oracle intellectual property into SAP products,’ he said.

‘On that basis there should be no customer concern around them inadvertently breaching intellectual property rights by using SAP products.’

Oracle has no beef with SAP customers, only with SAP, says Mitchell.

‘Oracle could remove customer concerns by declaring that it would not pursue SAP customers, for any breach of intellectual property that SAP may or may not have undertaken,’ he said.

‘Not only would this give some welcome customer re-assurance, it would also demonstrate that customers will not be punished for changing software or service providers.’