Judge Nixes, Lowers Oracle's $1.3B Award Against SAP

itwbennett writes "Federal judge Phyllis Hamilton has overturned the $1.3 billion judgment Oracle won against SAP and has approved SAP's request that Oracle accept a lower award, which would negate the need for a new trial." Oracle is in the habit of asking for awards in the billions; with that model, they really can make it up on volume.

Re:"asking for .. billions"

[Riceballsan]

I wonder if their outrageous claims give them legal viability.
"We want 100 billion dollars from them"
Judge: No
OK 50 billion
No
5 billion then
No
2 billion
That dosn't sound like much, OK.

Defendent: But they haven't even proven we have done anything wrong
Judge: Well they aren't asking much lets just give it to them so they stop bugging us.

Imaginary Customers

[Swanktastic]

"Rather than providing evidence of SAP's actual use of the copyrighted works, and objectively verifiable number of customers lost as a result, Oracle presented evidence of the purported value of the intellectual property as a whole, elicited self-serving testimony from its executives regarding the price they claim they would have demanded in an admittedly fictional negotiation, and proffered the speculative opinion of its damages expert, which was based on little more than guesses about the parties' expectations."

This comment from the judge is fascinating considering every software company out there pegs their piracy losses at face value rather than pointing to evidence of lost sales.