OVER THE PAST couple of years we have argued that the world's largest software companies benefit from and lobby for software patents. Oracle and SAP have been fighting a lot in court recently, over intellectual monopolies of course. But both companies share a pain, too. They are occasionally being targeted by intellectual monopolies of other companies and these monopolies are notably software patents.
Oracle is being sued by drug-safety software vendor DrugLogic over alleged patent violations, according to a complaint filed Dec. 17 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
DrugLogic makes software for managing clinical drug trials as well as monitoring drugs after they go to market. The suit centers on competing products sold by Relsys and Phase Forward, health care software companies that were acquired by Oracle in March 2009 and April, respectively.
This weekend, India rejected an unmerited drug patent application, paving the way for access to lifesaving medication for HIV patients across the world. This groundbreaking victory for patients sets an important precedent to stop pharmaceutical companies from gaming the patent system, marking a new era of hope for millions of people living with HIV all over the world.
Oracle Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary Passlogix stole confidential information to deprive a competitor of royalties, force it into bankruptcy, and use the stolen intellectual property for their own profit, 2FA Technology says in a $110 million claim in Federal Court.
The only defendants in the 33-page complaint are Oracle and Passlogix. But 2FA says the "conspiracy and corporate theft" were led by Passlogix's CEO Marc Boroditsky and its Chief Technology Office Marc Manza, "with active participation of Passlogix's senior management team."
A federal judge has ruled that software maker SAP AG is entitled to a new trial over what it owes Versata Software Inc. in a patent case, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.
The company had alleged that SAP's Business Suite software and associated services violated a number of its patents. Formerly known as Trilogy Software, Versata sells products for business rules management, product configuration and other areas.
Meanwhile, SAP is still faced with the landmark $1.3 billion judgment a jury recently awarded Oracle in connection with its corporate-theft suit against the company. SAP has not ruled out an appeal of the award.