Oracle awarded $50m in trial against Rimini Street

Maintenance fees are a big part of Oracle’s business, and it has brought lawsuits against maintenance providers before. Several years ago it successfully sued TomorrowNow, a former subsidiary of SAP.

The model of third party maintenance wasn’t on trial in this case, just the manner in which Rimini Street downloaded and stored Oracle’s software. Oracle said it infringed its copyrights, and Rimini Street has since changed how it does it.

“This decision against Rimini Street and Seth Ravin reinforces long established rules of fairness and honesty in business and the principles protecting investments in innovation,” Oracle said.

Rimini Street said it was “pleased to finally get our day in court.” Oracle filed the lawsuit five years ago.

“As Oracle and Rimini Street agree, there is no dispute that third party support for enterprise software is permitted for Oracle licence holders to purchase and for Rimini Street to offer,” Rimini Street said. “This case was about a good-faith licence dispute regarding processes no longer in use.”

The legal battle isn’t over, though, and Oracle said it looks forward to “the next stage of our legal proceedings.” Rimini Street filed its own suit against Oracle last October, seeking a declaration that its new process for handling Oracle’s software is legal.