Oracle: No Peace With HP

An Oracle attorney today ruled out a settlement with HP in the lawsuit over the support of the Itanium microprocessor, reports Reuters.

Yesterday, the judge refused to resolve the case for either side before trial – although both sides requested this – so a long and expensive court battle is inevitable.

Bonds of matrimony

Last year, HP filed a suit against its one-time partner Oracle over the software giant’s decision to end support for Intel’s Itanium platform. HP believes Oracle is breaking contracts with it in doing so and trying to force customers onto Oracle’s Sparc hardware.

In its defence, Oracle said it was aware of Intel’s secret plan to kill off Itanium, so the switch would happen anyway.

Oracle said in a court filing last week that HP is seeking about $4 billion in lost profit damages. Larry Ellison’s company accused HP of providing unrealistic damage estimates, and has countersued the hardware manufacturer for false advertising, claiming HP failed to disclose the terms of its contract with Intel.

At a hearing in a San Jose court today, an Oracle attorney stated that the settlement “isn’t going to happen.”

“This case appears to be the end of a marriage,” said the presiding judge after comparing the lawsuit to a divorce. Attorneys from Intel were also present in the courtroom. Although the company responsible for Itanium is not a party in the case, it has argued against Oracle’s request for financial information relating to its processors.

This is not the only high-profile court case that Oracle has on its hands. It is also claiming $1 billion (£630m) from Google in compensation for Android’s Java technology, which it says violates Oracle’s copyrights.

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