HPE must face Oracle software suit, rules US judge
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) will have to face a suit from Oracle that accuses it of copyright infringement, a California federal judge has ruled.
The decision was handed down by District Judge Jon Tigar on June 4 at the District Court for the Northern District of California, and later unsealed on Monday, June 14.
The dispute arose in 2016 when Oracle filed a complaint against HPE, accusing the company of improperly accessing, downloading, copying, and installing patches for the Solaris software program without authorisation.
According to the filing, HPE also allegedly partnered with a software support provider, Terix, to sell services that included the provision of software patches, updates, and bug fixes for Oracle’s Solaris operating system and related system firmware used on Oracle’s Sun-branded computers.
In 2019, the court granted HPE’s motion for summary judgment and denied Oracle’s cross-motion, holding that Oracle’s infringement and interference claims were barred by the statute of limitations and that the tech company had not presented evidence of unauthorised installations.
The court further held that Oracle’s intentional interference claims failed because Oracle had not identified a specific contract that was breached or disrupted, did not respond to HPE’s argument that Oracle suffered no economic harm, and had not shown HPE committed any independently wrongful act within the relevant time frame.
Ninth Circuit reprieve
Oracle appealed, and in August 2020 the Ninth Circuit granted a reprieve when it issued an opinion affirming in part and reversing and vacating in part the lower court’s summary judgment order. In doing so, it reversed the earlier decision and ordered a new trial to determine whether HPE infringed Oracle’s copyright.
The Ninth Circuit remanded the federal court in California “to properly analyse the licences,” in considering HPE’s express licence defence and to “reconsider all infringement claims”.
This week, Judge Tigar ruled that the evidence gathered by Oracle reflected that HPE’s partnership with Terix, which “hinged on the company’s ability to provide customers with Solaris patches”, was an important piece of HPE’s business and was encouraged by management.
“The court therefore holds that Oracle can satisfy both elements of contributory copyright infringement and denies HPE’s motion for summary judgment on this claim,” wrote Judge Tigar.
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