HP wins ruling against Oracle

A state court judge in California ruled that Oracle is contractually obligated to develop software for some high-profile server systems sold by Hewlett-Packard (HP), The Wall Street Journal reports.

The ruling on Wednesday is an important victory for HP, whose sales have been hurt by the prospect that future versions of Oracle programs wouldn't run on some of its flagship hardware. It allows further arguments to continue in front of a jury, a phase in which HP is expected to seek as much $4 billion in damages from Oracle.

According to Mercury News, Oracle vowed to appeal the Wednesday decision by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg. It requires Oracle to continue providing software for the HP server and paves the way for a second trial to determine damages.

HP claims its losses already total about $500 million, writes Seattle Times.

Tensions between Oracle and HP have grown as they have become direct competitors in some areas.

In the past, HP mostly made computer hardware, while Oracle primarily produced software. But HP is now heavily pushing its software, and Oracle got into the hardware business with its 2010 purchase of Sun Microsystems.