Hewlett-Packard wins ruling against Oracle in Itanium lawsuit

A California judge has ruled that Oracle Corp. is contractually obligated to continue developing software for Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Itanium-based servers.

The decision Wednesday by Judge James P. Kleinberg in San Jose advances Hewlett-Packard’s lawsuit to a jury trial to determine whether Oracle broke the contract and what, if any, damages should be awarded. Both sides have 15 days to file an objection to the decision, the judge said.

The judge agreed with Hewlett-Packard that Oracle made a commitment to support Intel Corp. Itanium servers in an agreement the companies reached over Mark Hurd’s transition from chief executive of Hewlett-Packard to co-president of Oracle. Before the trial started, Hewlett-Packard said it was seeking about $500 million in damages, according to a person familiar with the matter who didn’t want to be identified because the damages request is confidential.

Oracle said in a statement that it would appeal the decision.

“We know that Oracle did not give up its fundamental right to make platform engineering decisions,” the company said.

Hewlett-Packard called the ruling “a tremendous win for HP and its customers.”

“We expect Oracle to comply with its contractual obligation as ordered by the court,” the company said.

Oracle, based in Redwood City, Calif., denied Hewlett-Packard’s claims, arguing that it never agreed to forfeit control over what software it can develop and what price it can charge.

The second trial phase may cover Oracle’s claim that Intel “really wanted to kill” the Itanium chip, which was on “life support.” Oracle accuses Hewlett-Packard of engaging in a “campaign of secrecy and deception” and “payoff” to Intel to induce it to continue making the chips.