"SAP had indicated from the very beginning that there was some validity to Oracle's claim," Scavo said. "So this is no great surprise."

The Rimini Street case is more interesting from a customer standpoint because Oracle could have a harder time supporting its claims of copyright theft, he said. "My understanding, having spoken to Rimini Street, is that they have taken extraordinary measures to protect both Oracle and SAP intellectual property."

"They have indicated, by , that they plan to fight Oracle vigorously and even are welcoming the opportunity to do so," he said.

The issue is an important one for customers who are tied to expensive maintenance contracts with their vendors simply because they have no place else to go, added Paul Hamerman, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

Over the past few years, only a handful of companies have even attempted to deliver third-party services and often the ones that do are afraid to openly disclose that fact for fear of legal issues, he said.