Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Last Friday, Oracle was accused of allegedly fudging its cloud revenues. The company was accused of extortive and threatening sales tactics, publishing misleading SEC filings and making false statements on analyst earnings calls.
The software giant is no stranger to litigation; Oracle has battled the likes of HP, SAP and Google in court and is embroiled in ongoing cases with the latter to this day.
We take a look at some of Oracle's biggest legal run-ins with former employees, other vendors, and even strip club owners.
Oracle vs SAP - filed on 22 March 2007
Early signs of friction between SAP and Oracle started in 2005 when SAP acquired US third-party support firm TomorrowNow. This meant that SAP was now in the business of providing upgrade and support services for PeopleSoft licences - which has been part of Oracle since 2003 - for a lower rate than its US rival was.
Oracle did not take kindly to the German ERP vendor stepping on its toes, and filed a lawsuit in 2007 accusing SAP of downloading thousands of copyrighted applications and documents through TomorrowNow from Oracle's Customer Connection website.
The case ran for more than four years, and even included the spectacle of top Oracle executives Larry Ellison and Safra Catz testifying at a US district court in California in 2010.
The jury finally reached a verdict on 23 November 2010, when Oracle was awarded $1.3bn (€1.15bn) in compensation for "hypothetical licence" damages. The case broke records in copyright law at the time for containing the highest amount of damages ever awarded.
However, the case still wasn't over; there was one final twist in the tale. SAP appealed the fine, arguing that Oracle failed to present evidence that downloading the copyrighted software led to a loss of business for the US vendor, and refused to pay more than $408.7m in damages.
After much deliberation and back-and-forth, SAP got off pretty lightly and ended up paying just $272m.
TomorrowNow, however, is no more. The company closed its doors in 2008 as a result of the Oracle case after most of its senior managers resigned in 2007.
Courtroom drama rating: The SAP case had the makings of a top edge-of-your-seat TV drama, including executives testifying in court and last-minute appeals - 9/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Oracle vs Rimini Street - 25 January 2010
Where to begin? Rimini Street has been a thorn in Oracle's side since it was founded in 2005. Headed by ex-PeopleSoft executive Seth Ravin, Rimini Street, which offers third-party support for enterprise software, has been illegally downloading Oracle copyrighted material since it began hosting its software on its own servers in 2010, according to Oracle.
The case looked like it was reaching some semblance of a conclusion in 2016, with a US judge swinging in Oracle's favour, dishing out fines worth $27.7m for infringing Oracle copyrights. Rimini Street was also slapped with an injunction banning it from accessing non-public sections of Oracle websites and from downloading Oracle software.
Rimini Street was also fined $50m in October 2015, as well as $46.2m in attorney fees, for the same offence. Total fines and costs amount to around $124m.
The jury, however, concluded that Rimini Street's infringement was "innocent", and a later appeal from Rimini proved successful. At the start of the year, The US Court of Appeals agreed to trim $50m from the total amount owned to Oracle.
Encouraged by its surprise success in swaying the Court of Appeals, Rimini Street went on to make a second appeal to claw back an additional $32m through a court petition. The appeal was denied.
Courtroom drama rating: Rimini's sheer doggedness in trying to claw back damages gives this case a healthy drama injection - 7/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
US Department of Justice vs Oracle - 29 July 2010
One of several court cases to be brought by a former company employee, Oracle's wrangle with the US General Services Administration (GSA) began in 2007 after whistleblower and former senior director of contract services at Oracle Paul Frascella accused the US vendor of contract fraud.
Apparently, between 1998 and 2006, Oracle was cheating the GSA out of higher discounts that were being given to its commercial customers.
The GSA joined the lawsuit a few years later, in 2010, alleging that US agencies paid "far more" for Oracle products than they should have done.
The case was closed in 2011, and ended with Oracle forking over $199.5m plus interest for failing to meet contractual obligations.
Frascella walked away with a tidy $40m for the part he played in bringing Oracle to justice.
Courtroom drama rating: The whistleblower element lends a nice dash of excitement and the case gains gravity after the US DoJ enters the scene - 6/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Oracle vs Google - 13 August 2010
Oracle and Google have been at each other's throats for eight long years.
It started when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and became the owner of Java software. After Google's purchase of Android in 2005, the tech giant allegedly used Java shortcuts and rewrote code without a licence while developing the app.
Google initially won - with Judge William Aslup ruling on 31 May 2012 that the rewritten Java code did not fall under copyright and was fair use.
Oracle predictably appealed the decision and, in a dramatic turn of events, on 27 March this year the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the ruling, claiming that Google's use of Java had not been transformative, and therefore could not fall under fair use.
The case has now been sent back to the District Court to assess how much Google should fork over for the copyright infringement, with Oracle still expecting a massive $8.8bn payout from Google.
Courtroom drama rating: A clash of the titans, and everyone likes a last-minute comeback - 8/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
HP vs Oracle - 15 June 2011
This case was borne from a tricky tie-up between Oracle software, HP servers and Intel processors. Oracle decided to stop developing software for Intel's poorly received Itanium processors, claiming the chip was a dying breed and that it would instead focus efforts on its x86 series.
The news was met by fire and fury from HP, which was still running Itanium on a lot of its high-end servers, and insisted that Oracle was under contractual obligation to support the failing processor.
HP and Oracle have historically been the best of friends, but the relationship turned sour when Oracle became a competitor through acquiring Sun Microsystems in 2010.
A Californian judge ruled in favour of HP in 2012, ordering Oracle to continue porting its software to Itanium for as long as HP's servers continue to use them.
It wasn't until 2016 that the damages relating to the falling-out were assessed, and Oracle was forced to fork over a whopping $3bn.
Oracle claimed it planned to appeal both the ruling and the damages owed.
A statement from EVP general counsel and secretary Dorian Daley read: "Two trials have now demonstrated clearly that the Itanium chip was nearing end of life, HP knew it, and was actively hiding that fact from its customers.
"Oracle never believed it had a contract to continue to port our software to Itanium indefinitely and we do not believe so today; nevertheless, Oracle has been providing all its latest software for the Itanium systems since the original ruling while HP and Intel stopped developing systems years ago.
"Further, it is very clear that any contractual obligations were reciprocal and HP breached its own obligations. Now that both trials have concluded, we intend to appeal both today's ruling and the prior ruling from Judge Kleinberg."
Courtroom drama rating: The HP case has longevity, and an outrageous $3bn price to boot - 8/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Bijou Century LLC vs Oracle - September 2013
Probably the most downright unusual case on this list, Oracle was sued by Bijou Central LLC over an unpaid bill at a strip club totalling $33,540.
The court summons was issued after Oracle employee Jose Sanchez allegedly paid two visits to a San Francisco strip club called New Central Theatre in 2012 during Oracle's OpenWorld event.
Sanchez racked up a $33,540 bill in the establishment, where he used a corporate American Express card issued by Oracle. The total bill, featuring receipts ranging from $550 to $2,400 in value, were included in the summons document from the Superior Court of California.
The strip club said it would charge interest on the bill at a rate of 10 per cent per annum as of 3 September 2013.
Courtroom drama rating: More amusing than dramatic - 4/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Oregon vs Oracle - 22 August 2014
The drawn-out battle between Oregon and Oracle saw more punches thrown than in a heavyweight boxing match, but ultimately left Oracle licking its wounds after settling a $100m bill with the US state.
It began in August 2014, when Oregon blamed Oracle for the failed launch of the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange site known as Cover Oregon.
The site never launched because of "technical problems", with the state pointing its finger firmly at Oracle - the largest tech contractor working on the website.
Oregon State was seeking $200m in damages from the vendor giant.
Taking inspiration from the adage that "the best defence is a good offense", Oracle responded six months later with a lawsuit of its own against five former advisers to the state's former governor, accusing them of discretely seeking to destroy the website's launch for political gain.
"Political operatives Patricia McCaig, Kevin Looper, Scott Nelson, Tim Raphael and Mark Wiener acted in the shadows and took actions to undermine the ability of Oregonians to receive health coverage; create a false narrative blaming Oracle for the state's failures; and ultimately interfere with Oracle's business," an Oracle spokesperson said in a statement at the time.
The tech vendor did not hesitate in going on another offensive almost a year later, this time accusing the state of unnecessarily dragging out the legal case instead of complying with a settlement.
It all came to a head on 15 September 2016 when Oracle eventually agreed to fork over $100m to Oregon, as well as a six-year unlimited licence for Oregon to use Oracle products and services.
Courtroom drama rating: More plot twists than a Shakespearean tragedy, plus allegations of House of Cards-style political conspiracy - 9/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Svetlana Blackburn vs Oracle - 1 June 2016
The Svetlana Blackburn case is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, it is a predecessor to the latest lawsuit filed against Oracle for misleading investors on the success of its cloud business; secondly, it arguably opened up a wider debate about whether tech giants should be more transparent and forthcoming with how they report cloud figures.
The Blackburn case blew this conversation wide open. The former senior finance manager for Oracle filed a lawsuit with the US District Court in San Francisco accusing superiors of pressuring her to "fit square data into round holes" in order to make Oracle's Cloud Services figures appear more flattering.
She said bosses instructed her to add on millions of dollars-worth of "expected business" to Oracle's financials, "with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers".
Blackburn claims that Oracle then terminated her employment because she refused to inflate the vendor's numbers.
Oracle swung back with a lawsuit of its own, arguing that Blackburn worked at the vendor for less than a year and was given the sack for failing to meet the requirements of her role.
This was followed by yet another lawsuit, this time headed by Oracle investor Grover Klarfeld on behalf of shareholders accusing Oracle of misleading the market by artificially inflating cloud revenues.
Courtroom drama rating: A shareholder lawsuit adds weight to this David versus Goliath story - 7/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
Marcella Johnson vs Oracle - 14 February 2017
Former Oracle salesperson Marcella Johnson sued the vendor for damages of at least $150m last year, accusing her previous employer of cheating workers out of commission payments.
She claimed the vendor regularly backtracked on previously agreed commission plans and then coerced staff into accepting less generous plans. Oracle threatened to pay no commission at all if they refused, she said.
As a result, Johnson claimed that sales staff ended up working for no commission at all, going so far as to say that Oracle employs a systematic process of taking "millions of dollars from commission wages to add to its bottom line".
Courtroom drama rating: We've not heard anything about this case since it was filed last year - 4/10
Oracle's 10 biggest legal battles
In the wake of yet another lawsuit involving Oracle, we run through 10 of the vendor's biggest court battles
A&E Adventures vs Oracle - 21 March 2018
This class-action suit against Oracle stems from its 2014 acquisition of Micros, a point-of-sale (PoS) manufacturer in the food, beverage and hospitality space.
Florida-based A&E Adventures - which runs a string of family entertainment centres in the US - claims that since Oracle got its hands on Micros, things have started to go downhill.
It filed a lawsuit to the Florida State Court this March, accusing Oracle of "purposefully and knowingly" forcing it to abandon its current PoS system and upgrade to Oracle's subscription-based Simphony range.
Oracle also allegedly refused to provide support for A&E's current Micros systems and even took "Red Keys" away from users - USB devices containing licence code for upgrading the software on existing systems, the complaint claims.
Courtroom drama rating: Oracle allegedly confiscating precious "Red Keys" from users helps the case's drama rating, but vendor acquisitions causing customer upset feels like a story we've all heard many times before - 6/10