SAP to hand over multi-million dollar interest to IP victor Oracle

Coulda been worse

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 30th December 2010 12:54 GMT

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Oracle must be paid interest on the $1.3bn payout it received from German software maker SAP in a jury verdict in November over stolen intellectual property.

US District Judge Phyllis J Hamilton in Oakland, California ordered SAP to cough up the interest earlier this week, according to Bloomberg. The judge didn't offer up an amount in her ruling, but SAP said a sum of around $16.5m is to be paid out.

“The court does not find that the rate should be calculated separately for each year back to the date of the hypothetical license negotiation,” said Hamilton.

Oracle had claimed it was owed $211.7m in interest on the verdict, much of which involved backdated interest to 2005 and 2006.

The interest payment demand is the latest slap in the face for SAP, which is the world's largest biz software company.

Last month it was ordered to pay Larry Ellison's database firm $1.3bn, after Oracle sought damages for theft of its IP by defunct SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow.

Oracle had wanted $1.7bn in damages in closing arguments in the case, while SAP called for an award closer to $40m.

During the trial SAP admitted wrongdoing by TomorrowNow. It agreed to pay Oracle $120m in legal fees and its co-CEO was baited into apologising to Ellison's company under pressure from Oracle's attorney. ®

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