On Thursday, Oracle filed a letter with Oakland, Calif., federal district court judge Phyllis Hamilton accusing SAP of gamesmanship for waiting until a few days before a scheduled Nov. 1 trial to announce that it will not fight claims of contributory infringement. In the letter, Bingham McCutchen partner Geoffrey Howard stated that Oracle opposed SAP’s request to exclude evidence and arguments related solely to contributory infringement. The company also asked that the trial be postponed until Nov. 4 to allow it to adjust to a trial that will only deal with damages. (David Boies of Boies Schiller & Flexner is scheduled to be Oracle’s lead trial counsel.)
SAP, represented by Jones Day, responded later on Thursday with this letter written by partner Tharan Gregory Lanier. He claimed that Oracle was upset with the change in plans because it disrupted Oracle’s scheme to embarrass rival Hewlett-Packard by calling as its first witness HP’s new chief executive officer Leo Apotheker. Apotheker was the CEO of SAP during the time period at issue. (As you’ll recall, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has been publicly battling with HP ever since HP let go its CEO Mark Hurd in a cloud of embarrassment; Ellison hired Hurd as Oracle’s CEO.) “Due to Ellison’s obsession with HP, Oracle is threatening to turn the trial into a media circus,” wrote Lanier.
