Rimini Street takes Oracle to the Supreme Court over litigation costs

Back in 2016, Rimini Street was ordered to pay nearly $100 million to Oracle after a after a jury found that Rimini infringed 93 Oracle copyrights. Now, the Supreme Court will consider whether, thanks to a legal technicality, Rimini Street should get back $12.8 million in litigation costs.

Rimini Street, which provides third party enterprise software support, has argued that the Copyright Act limits the judgment awarded to Oracle to "taxable costs" -- while the $12.8 million in attorney fees and costs were non-taxable. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the non-taxable costs could be included.

After years of battling over the copyright claims in court, the two parties made clear Thursday there's no love lost between them.

"No amount of bluster and attempted media spin by Oracle can obfuscate the facts that the jury found Rimini Street's past infringement was 'innocent' and not intentional, that Oracle lost 11 out of 12 claims against the Company, that Oracle lost all claims against Rimini Street's CEO, and that Oracle has already been ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals to refund $21.5 million of amounts previously paid by Rimini Street in 2016," Rimini Street said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Oracle said that Rimini Street's "underlying conduct is not in question."

Dorian Daley, Oracle's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement, "We look forward to addressing this costs issue in our nation's highest court, and we believe that the Court should reject the attempt by Rimini Street -- a dishonest, serial infringer -- to avoid fully compensating Oracle for Rimini's misconduct."

Rimini Street continues to pursue additional appeals against Oracle in federal court.