Oracle files for retrial in case against SAP

Oracle has filed for a new trial in its long-running dispute with SAP over intellectual property infringement.

The filing made by Oracle's attorney Geoffrey M Howard of Bingham McClutchen LLP in the US District Court of Oakland, California, rejects the award of $272m awarded by Federal Judge Phyllis Hamilton in September 2011 and opts for a retrial.

Judge Hamilton had slashed an earlier award of $1.3bn made by a jury in November 2010, calling the jury's award "grossly excessive".

Oracle brought the lawsuit against SAP's TommorrowNow software maintenance spin-off in March 2007, claiming it enabled SAP customers to download Oracle's software without a valid licence.

In the ensuing trial SAP admitted unauthorised downloads, and Oracle's expert witness estimated damages at $408.7m. The jury awarded much higher damages on the assumption that SAP would have paid the full price for all the software downloaded.

Oracle said it had evidence of over 10,000 unauthorised downloads. SAP argues that it would not have had access to Oracle's IP as any downloads would have resided in TomorrowNow's systems and it would have never sought to buy Oracle's software in such quantity.

SAP's counsel issued a statement shortly after Oracle's latest filing, saying: "We are disappointed that Oracle has passed up yet another opportunity to resolve this case. We will continue to work to bring this case to a fair and reasonable end."