Oracle and SAP have proposed an out of court agreement over damages relating to the SAP/TomorrowNow copyright infringement case, under which SAP will pay $306m in damages. The proposed deal also makes provision for Oracle to claim $120m in legal bills, which has already been paid. The agreement, which needs court approval, is designed to avoid another costly trial, which was scheduled to start next month (August 2012).
The sum is a far cry from the $1.3bn the jury originally awarded to Oracle but more than that $272m the judge amended it to (see the HotViews archive here for the background). If the agreement is approved, Oracle could go to appeal and ask for all or some the original $1.3bn sum to the reinstated. The likelihood of that happening must be low and the proposed agreement appears to set SAP’s liability at $306m. If approved, the agreement effectively brings an end to the saga. One of the most surprising aspects is that despite admitting and being found guilty of illegally downloading Oracle software, SAP managed to distance itself from its TomorrowNow subsidiary and survived with remarkably little damage to its reputation or its profits. As for the wider implications, the trial has determined some of the legal boundaries around third party maintenance execution. We wonder whether the EU ruling that supports the resale of software licences (see here) – and could be a driver for third party maintenance providers to extend the scope of their services - will generate further exploration.