Tensions rise over damages at Oracle-SAP trial

12.11.2010
The Oracle-SAP trial ended its second week with some tense exchanges over how much SAP should pay in damages for the software theft committed by its TomorrowNow subsidiary.

Oracle called its last witness on Friday morning and had almost finished presenting its case when the court broke up for the weekend. After Oracle wraps up its case on Monday morning, SAP will have about two weeks to make its defense.

For its last witness Friday, Oracle played a video-taped deposition of former SAP CEO Henning Kagermann, who acknowledged that TomorrowNow's use of Oracle's software was "not appropriate in all cases."

Much of Friday was spent on SAP's cross-examination of Oracle's damages expert, Paul Meyer, who testified earlier this week that SAP should pay Oracle US$1.6 billion to compensate for the software stolen by TomorrowNow, which SAP has since shut down.

Bob Mittelstaedt, an attorney for SAP, tried to show that Meyer's analysis was flawed, but he struggled to get yes or no answers to the questions he asked.

If TomorrowNow had negotiated a license for the stolen software, he asked Meyer at one point, would SAP have had the right to sell Oracle's intellectual property to other companies?