Rimini Street has announced that it has won the latest round of its legal battle with Oracle. It issued the following statement: “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision of national significance in copyright law, reversing earlier decisions by lower courts and ruling that Oracle must return $12.8 million in non-taxable expenses (plus interest) that Rimini Street paid to Oracle in 2016.
“This refund is in addition to the $21.5 million that Oracle previously returned to Rimini Street, following a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Rimini Street’s appeal of the judgment in the Oracle v. Rimini Street case. The decision resolves a nationwide split among federal appellate courts about the proper measure of costs in copyright litigation.”
Seth Ravin, Rimini Street CEO commented: “We are pleased with this latest victory in the highest Court, and look forward to continuing our fierce competition with Oracle in the marketplace by providing the best enterprise software support service and value for Oracle licensees worldwide.”
That interest was paid on the amount also means that Oracle did not manage to defray any costs for this. There still remains an outstanding appeal to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to recover another $28.5 million from Oracle.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
For this specific case Lexology summed up the impact saying: “Barring an amendment to the Copyright Act, district courts have no authority to award prevailing parties in copyright cases any litigation expenses (such as expert witness fees and discovery expenses) that are not covered by 28 U.S.C. § 1920.”
The legal battle between Rimini Street and Oracle is slowly ending. Both companies are aggressively defending their positions at some cost. While the numbers are not small, they are becoming insignificant in the scale of both organisations now.
