The battle in court between Oracle and SAP is looking like it’s about to end, after a Thursday court appearance of Oracle President Safra Catz ‘who last week described SAP’s offer of $40 million in damages as “a reward for their bad behavior.” Presumably, Catz will have a bit more to say on that matter, now that SAP’s high-priced damages expert has outlined the calculation that got him to that figure.  In the days prior, SAP co-Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott admitted the data theft and apologized, which in turn determined a quieting of the situation overall.

This is not the only situation in which Oracle takes legal action for ‘intellectual property’. In August this year Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google over Java patents and copyrights. Oracle had acquired Java under Sun Microsystems purchase and accused Google of having used the program for the Android platform.

While SAP and Oracle are busy fighting in court over intellectual property rights, their customers are finding ways to reduce costs. France Telecom has been using the SAP software for products that ‘the company used to build its network, such as cables, antennae and other equipment’ and the Oracle software for the ‘management of stock and inventory’. In the end, France Telecom has found a golden mean and implemented a new ERP system so as to cover the functions of the SAP and Oracle software. The new IFS solution will be fully implemented at the beginning of 2011.

France Telecom explained this move through the overdue character of the SAP and Oracle software which “had reached a point where they required a high degree of modification, meaning the company was under-utilizing the system. The life expectancy of the systems was limited because management was no longer supported.”