Oraclehas
filed new charges againstSAPalleging
that its TomorrowNow subsidiary stole Oracle software with the
knowledge of SAP executives, according to court papers filed
yesterday.
Oracle claims its revised complaint will reveal "a pattern of
unlawful conduct that is different from, and even more serious than
the mass downloading," which was the focus of the
original case.
Oracle filed its first complaint against SAP in 2007, alleging
that TomorrowNow
employees posed as Oracle customers to
download patches and support documentation from Oracle's
website.
TomorrowNow then used the materials to provide cheap services to
Oracle customers, and made attempts to switch them onto SAP's
platform, Oracle alleges.
Oracle now claims that TomorrowNow workers downloaded Oracle
business applications, as well as just its support materials and
that
SAP executives may have been complicit - something SAP has
vehemently denied.
"It appears that SAP AG and SAP America knew - at executive
levels - of the likely illegality of TN's business model from the
time of their acquisition of TN and, for business reasons, failed
to change it," said Oracle.
SAP claimed that it did not have access to Oracle materials
downloaded by TomorrowNow. SAP explained that it intentionally
created a business structure that maintained a firewall between
TomorrowNow and SAP and that it was satisfied that SAP AG or SAP
America did not access Oracle intellectual property via
TomorrowNow.
The parties' next case management conference will be held on
April 24.