Oracle Corp. alleged in a federal-court filing Monday that executives at rival SAP AG knew that an SAP subsidiary was stealing Oracle trade secrets.
The filing is the latest salvo in a suit Oracle brought against SAP in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in March 2007. The suit alleges that TomorrowNow Inc., which SAP bought in 2005, illegally obtained and reused Oracle software-support documentation.
In Monday's San Francisco Federal Court filing, Oracle claims that SAP Chief Executive Henning Kagermann and other members of SAP's executive team knew that TomorrowNow misused Oracle's intellectual property before making the acquisition. The new allegations are based on documents uncovered during the discovery phase of the lawsuit and on witness depositions.
An SAP spokesman said the latest complaint repeats themes and allegations that Oracle has made in the past. "Ultimately, the court and the legal system will determine the facts in this case," he said. A spokeswoman for Oracle declined to comment.
TomorrowNow provides discounted technical support to companies that use Oracle software. SAP acquired TomorrowNow as part of a larger campaign to win customers from Oracle. Last week SAP said it will close TomorrowNow in October.
In July 2007, SAP admitted some inappropriate downloads on the part of TomorrowNow. Mr. Kagermann said he took steps to strengthen oversight of TomorrowNow as soon as he learned about the activity.
In one document cited in Oracle's amended complaint, SAP executives were warned that TomorrowNow's access to the software "is very likely to be challenged by Oracle" and that TomorrowNow's operating practices "may be a serious liability." In another, a member of SAP's due-diligence team warned an executive-board member that it was "very likely that TomorrowNow is using [Oracle's] software outside the contractual rights granted to them."
The amended complaint charges that SAP's senior leadership developed a plan, dubbed "Project Blue," to discontinue TomorrowNow's alleged illegal activity, but that the plan was never enacted.
Instead, SAP continued to let TomorrowNow download its rival's trade secrets, the Oracle complaint alleges. The court filing alleges that TomorrowNow used customized software to automatically find and download information from Oracle and that TomorrowNow had 20 computers dedicated to storing this information. One of these computers contained eight million Oracle software and support documents, the complaint alleges.
A trial is set for February 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice has requested documentation on the case, SAP has previously disclosed.
