SAP has finally responded to Oracle's claims that the company engaged in theft of its intellectual property. The legal document is highly recommended reading, as some of its appears to have been written by intoxicated frat boys.

For background, SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow (TN) in November and December downloaded vast amounts of support materials for Peoplesoft software, on behalf of customers migrating from Peoplesoft to SAP software. In some cases, the company violated the terms of those accounts by downloading information for which the client didn't own a license.

03 Jul 2007

SAP denies most wrongdoings, but does admit that it has downloaded materials for products without a license.

But SAP won't go down without a fight. Instead the firm is responding to each charge with the fervor of a two bickering divorcees.

When Oracle charges that: "This storehouse of stolen Oracle intellectual property enables SAP to offer cut rate support services to customers who use Oracle software, and to attempt to lure them to SAP’s applications software platform and away from Oracle’s."

SAP quips: "Oracle professes surprise and confusion about how TN can provide services more cost-effectively than Oracle. The answer is simple – TN does not force its service customers to pay artificially inflated prices for service to fund Oracle’s future acquisition and integration of products that customers do not want or need. TN provides service, and charges only for that service."

SAP dismisses Oracle's list of stolen materials as "typical of the rhetoric and hyperbole throughout Oracle's complaint."

When Oracle complains that SAP's downloading displayed a "pattern of 'sweeping'" and "the indiscriminate, wholesale copying" of support materials, SAP responds that the process was just "conducted speedily and efficiently".

But after all the petty bickering, Oracle is left with SAP admitting that it downloaded materials without a license. That should account for something before a jury.