During initial contacts with Pillsbury, Oracle did agree to pay "reasonable" costs, the filing states. But the Pillsbury employees' time does not qualify since they would have been paid their salaries whether or not Oracle had served the company with a subpoena, and therefore it does not constitute an "out-of-pocket" expense, it adds.

Pillsbury told Oracle that its workers spent about six hours preparing the documents, but has not explained how that resulted in a $1,500 total, it wrote. "So Oracle does not know if Pillsbury is charging its normal billing rate for these employees -- in which case Pillsbury is attempting to earn a profit from responding to the subpoena -- or whether the figure represents an allocation of annual salary attributable to this document review, or if some other methodology was used."

The $1,500 should be no issue for Pillsbury to shoulder on its own, given that it grossed more than $500 million last year, and because of the litigation's "public importance," Oracle argued.

It also indicated how important the suit is to Oracle. "Oracle has invested countless hours and billions of dollars in the research and development of its software and support materials," the filing states. "It employs thousands of people across the world, and its financial stability depends in large part on customer support revenues."

In a response filed Friday, Pillsbury disagreed with Oracle's interpretation of the law, arguing that the employees' time qualified as a reimbursable expense.