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Oracle is not having a good run in the courts this summer. It lost to Google when a federal judge ruled that Google Android software did not infringe Java patents, and again when the European Court of Justice determined that software licences could be resold. Now the Superior Court of California has determined that Oracle was in breach of its contract with HP when Oracle took the decision to stop development of its software on HP’s Itanium-based servers. The court has ruled that Oracle must develop its software for Itanium servers and do so without charging HP. Oracle plans to appeal.
It should be an important win for HP who could certainly do with a break given its performance (see Meg paints a gloomy picture of HP recovery), its changes in direction and in the leadership role, all of which we have commented on extensively in HotViews. Putting the pending appeal aside for the moment, it should provide customers with confidence to invest in HP’s Itanium line. However, you have to question just how committed Oracle would be to developments on a platform it does not want to support, and for a vendor it has fought bitterly with over multiple issues. Oracle is also banking its own hardware-to-software Red Stack so has no interest in supporting a rival. Complying with letter of the law is very different from complying with the spirit of the law so HP may not gain as much as it hopes from this ruling.
