Oracle files lawsuit against rival SAP
Oracle Corp announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against rival SAP, alleging a "massive" theft of proprietary information.
By PTI |
SILICON VALLEY: Oracle Corp announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against rival SAP, alleging a "massive" theft of proprietary information. The lawsuit, filed in the US Federal District Court in San Francisco names SAP and its wholly owned subsidiary TomorrowNow, a third-party provider of support services for Oracle's PeopleSoft, J D Edwards and Siebel product lines, as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that SAP has systematically, illegally accessed Oracle's customer-support Web site and taken for its own use "thousands" of Oracle software products and other proprietary support materials. SAP will not comment until it has had a chance to review the lawsuit, a spokesman said. SAP acquired TomorrowNow in 2005.
Oracle says that in late November it noticed an unusually heavy volume of download activity on Oracle's password-protected customer support and maintenance site for its PeopleSoft and J D Edwards customers, reported CNET.News.
Upon a review of the Customer Connection site, Oracle alleges that it found more than 10,000 illicit downloads in which customers with expired, or soon-to-expire, support and maintenance contracts had accessed the support and maintenance site.
The online publications said Oracle claims that one common thread among all of the customers with allegedly misappropriated customer IDs is that they were about to become, or had recently become, an SAP TomorrowNow customer.
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"This systematic theft of Oracle's software and support materials did not originate from any actual customer location. Rather, the access originated from an Internet protocol (IP) address in Bryan, Texas, an SAP America branch office location and home of its wholly owned subsidiary SAP TN," the lawsuit alleges. SAP employees allegedly used log-in IDs of multiple PeopleSoft and J D Edwards customers to access Oracle's Customer Connection system, but then supplied bogus e-mail addresses, user names and phone numbers.
Oracle is asking the court to issue a preliminary restraining order against SAP to limit access to its customer support site, as well as an order that would require the return of the alleged illicit customer support and maintenance documents.
"Using one customer's credentials, SAP suddenly downloaded an average of over 1,800 items per day for four days straight, compared to that customer's normal downloads averaging 20 per month," the lawsuit alleges.
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