Business software giant Oracle has sued rival SAP in a US federal court, charging the German firm with the online looting of its software libraries to gain a competitive advantage.
Oracle urged the US District Court in San Francisco to hold a jury trial in the case and immediately order SAP and its subsidiaries to return programmes and software fixes or 'patches'.
'This case is about corporate theft on a grand scale, committed by the largest German software company,' Oracle attorney Christopher Hockett wrote in the lawsuit.
An SAP spokesman said the company was not commenting on the lawsuit until its attorneys had time to review the 44-page filing.
The suit contends that SAP responded to Oracle's 2004 purchase of PeopleSoft by buying Texas-based software company TomorrowNow and embarking on a law-breaking conspiracy last year to steal Oracle's customers and technology.
SAP bulked up its sales force to aggressively woo away Oracle customers, then used the clients' support accounts and passwords to raid Oracle's software databases, Oracle charged in court documents.
