Supreme Court rejects SAP appeal against $391 million lawsuit

SAP has vowed to continue its fight against a patent suit that cost it $391 million (£236 million, AU$440 million), despite the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting their appeal.

The Supreme Court has not as yet given a reason for the rejection of SAP's appeal. The motion was only briefly mentioned among the other orders of the day.

The current court conflict is between SAP and business software developers Versata. Versata sold pricing software that SAP shipped to customers of its own business tech, bundling them together as packages. In 2007, SAP began to create and use its own pricing software and then included it with its other applications. Verista claimed that this cut into its sales and infringed their rights, and filed suit.

"Unfortunate but not unexpected"

Versata won the original suit in 2009, with a new trial being set for 2011 by the judge so that the patent laws could be examined. Versata succeeded in the later trial too, a jury awarding the company the $391 million in damages.

SAP challenged the verdict with claims that customers choose to use their application over the Versata application, placing responsibility on them. Further, they then argued that the case should be placed on hold until another review of the patent claim could be validated. This week's ruling by the Supreme Court will have put a dent in the company's hopes of having the suit overturned.

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