SAP ordered to pay interest on $1.3 billion award to Oracle
29 Dec 2010
A US federal judge has ordered SAP AG to pay interest on a $1.3 billion award that Oracle Corp won against the company in a copyright-infringement case in November.
Earlier this month, California-based Oracle had asked that it be paid $211.7 million in "prejudgment interest," in addition to the $1.3 billion award. Oracle contended that the interest be calculated back to 2005, at which time the copyright infringement started.
In yesterday's ruling, the judge while turning down Oracle's proposal, outlined a method using an average of historical Treasury yields for calculation of the payment.
Yesterday's ruling comes after a November jury verdict ordered the Walldorf, Germany-based SAP to make a payment of $1.3 billion to its competitor for copyright infringement committed by a former SAP business unit, TomorrowNow (See: SAP ordered to pay Oracle $1.3 billion for software piracy).
The high profile case had been keenly watched. It also featured a testimony from Silicon Valley luminaries, including Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison.
Though the judge did not put a figure to the amount in her ruling yesterday, according to SAP, the court's method would result in a payment of approximately $16.5 million.