SAP to pay $1.3bn in Oracle TomorrowNow case

SAP has been ordered to pay $1.3bn (£823m) to Oracle after copyright infringement by its TomorrowNow subsidiary.

The US District Court in Oakland, California, found that TomorrowNow had knowingly infringed on Oracle's intellectual property by illegally using the company's software and documents.

SAP had admitted the wrongdoing by TomorrowNow, but had asked for damages to be limited to around $40m (£25m). The verdict today has shocked many in the industry.

"To my recollection that's the largest copyright verdict ever. The number is just astronomical," Colby Springer, a partner at law firm Carr & Ferrell, told The Wall Street Journal, adding that damages in patent cases tend to be higher than in copyright cases.

The case is one of the most high profile in recent years. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison and SAP co-chief executive Bill McDermott both took the stand, and Ellison engaged in a war of words with former SAP chief executive Léo Apotheker, who now heads HP.

SAP admitted that the actions of TomorrowNow infringed on over 100 of Oracle's patents, but said that the ruling was not the end of the court battle.

"This will unfortunately be a prolonged process and we continue to hope that the matter can be resolved appropriately without more years of litigation," said an SAP spokesman.