The Hewlett-Packard vs. Oracle case may soon be getting its much needed court time as both parties asked a Californian judge to rule in their favor.

The two companies are arguing about the Itanium chip, used on certain exotic, high-end systems sold by HP, which Oracle declared that they would stop supporting.  HP argues that Oracle is bound by a contract to continue supporting the Itanium chip for a few more years.  Oracle claimed that Intel, which makes the Itanium chip, wanted to discontinue chip production for a long time as it was “nearing the end of its life.”

HP fired the first bullet when they published a statement regarding Oracle’s plan to abandon support for the Itanium and even used Larry Ellison’s words against their own company.

“The information brought to light during the discovery period further underscores the key facts of this case. In fact, it has led HP to seek a pretrial ruling that Oracle is contractually obligated to offer future versions of Oracle’s software on Itanium. It is time for Oracle to quit pursuing baseless accusations and honor its commitments to HP and to our shared customers.”

“Ellison testified that in making his decision to issue Oracle’s March 22 announcement that Itanium was “nearing the end of its life,” he relied on a conversation with Intel’s chief executive officer, Paul Otellini. But Ellison admitted under oath that Otellini did not say that Itanium was nearing the end of its life. And the Intel executive responsible for the Itanium business has now testified unequivocally that Oracle’s claim was not true.”

If you look closely, you will see that HP is battling for the survival of the Itanium because without the support and maintenance fees collected from companies who buy HP’s Itanium-based servers, they are strategically screwed.  Oracle, on the other hand, has literally nothing to lose if the Itanium goes down the sewers.

In January of this year the legal battle between the two crossed borders, stretching to Europe.  Authorities are now investigating HP’s claims that Oracle is using discriminatory practices on licensing and support for Intel-based offerings.

Aside from the Itanium chips, Oracle also accused HP of duping them into hiring their former CEO Mark Hurd by hiding the fact that they were in the process of hiring Leo Apotheker as CEO and Ray Lane as board chairman, and that they were paying $88 million a year to Intel to “artificially continue” the Itanium’s lifespan.  Oracle’s bids were dismissed.

To fan the flames, Oracle keeps stealing HP execs.  Aside from Hurd,  Tom LaRocca, former HP vice president of marketing and strategy is now Oracle’s vice president of worldwide product strategy and alliances.