SAP wants information about Oracle's deal with partner

SAP wants a federal court to make Oracle hand over records of its business arrangement with CedarCrestone, an Alpharetta, Georgia, systems integrator that provides third-party support for Oracle PeopleSoft applications.

The filing was made on Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court-Northern District of California, in connection with the lawsuit Oracle filed against SAP in March 2007. Oracle charges that SAP's now-shuttered subsidiary TomorrowNow, a provider of third-party support for Oracle's PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications, illegally downloaded material from Oracle's support systems and used it to woo Oracle customers.

SAP has said that TomorrowNow workers were authorized to download materials from Oracle's site on behalf of TomorrowNow customers, but acknowledged some "inappropriate downloads" had occurred. SAP has also said that Oracle's software remained in TomorrowNow's systems and has denied Oracle's allegations of a wider pattern of wrongdoing.

SAP's Jan. 16 filing argues that since "Oracle's partners apparently pay for the right to access Oracle's Software and Support Materials," Oracle's deal with CedarCrestone is "directly relevant" to calculating damages in the suit.

"Moreover, the mere fact that customers have options for support from Oracle partners (rather than obtaining support services directly from Oracle) may prove that customers would have left Oracle to get support elsewhere regardless of the activities of TomorrowNow," the filing adds.

In addition, SAP wants Oracle to provide the terms and conditions by which CedarCrestone can access and use Oracle software and support materials; and "documents sufficient to identify" which Oracle customers CedarCrestone is supporting.

SAP also issued a subpoena to CedarCrestone in November, seeking a range of information on its relationship with Oracle, according to another filing. In a Dec. 8 letter, an attorney for CedarCrestone objected to the subpoena on the grounds it was "overbroad, vague, ambiguous and burdensome," and also requested proprietary and confidential information. The attorney could not immediately be reached for further comment Tuesday.

Oracle and SAP both declined comment Tuesday.

The Jan. 16 filing follows another request by SAP that could bring potentially sensitive information from Oracle into public view. SAP recently asked that Oracle reveal its profit-margin information regarding PeopleSoft and JD Edwards software and support, also saying such information would be relevant to calculating damages.

A settlement conference in the case has been scheduled for Feb. 23, and a trial date is set for February 2010.

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ IDG News Service

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