HPE ordered to pay Oracle $30m in copyright damages

A jury has ruled Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) must pay Oracle $30m in copyright damages.

It comes following weeks of debate between the two companies after it was alleged that HPE provided software updates to an Oracle operating system without permission.

In addition to awarding $30m to Oracle, the jury also felt HPE was liable for $24m in damages for interference.

But according to Reuters, an attorney for HPE said Oracle was only entitled to $30m, not the combined $54m.

A United States District Court of Northern California verdict form showed jurors found HPE directly and vicariously infringed copyright belonging to Oracle.

They also answered "Yes" to whether HPE engaged in "intentional interference with Oracle's contractual relationships with customers at issue".

HPE has been contacted for comment.

The long-running dispute between the two companies began after Oracle bought Sun Microsystems in 2010 for $7.4bn.

This started a move by Oracle to discontinue developing software for Intel's Itanium processor which was being used by HPE.

In 2016 Oracle was ordered to pay HPE $3bn in damages following the dispute between the two companies over Oracle's software support for HPE's Itanium servers.