Oracle faces $100 million lawsuit

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Texan security software company 2FA has launched a lawsuit against Oracle in a wrangle over alleged source code theft.

In a 31-page legal document, 2FA has claimed Passlogix - now a subsidiary of Larry Ellison's firm - stole source code for authentication and credential management software to use in its own v-GO UAM product line.

2FA said the source code theft had been going on before the $42 million (£27 million) Oracle acquisition, claiming the latter continued to use incorporated Passlogix software with pilfered 2FA code after the purchase.

The Texan firm had signed a licence-sharing agreement with Passlogix back in 2006, but the agreement provided licence to 2FA software "under very restrictive terms," the court document read.

It was also alleged a Passlogix product manager sent an email containing 2FA source code to other members of staff who "had no requirement to access" such information.

"Oracle has been and continues to sell software misappropriated from 2FA, even after being notified by 2FA of its illegal actions," the document said.

"2FA has been damaged as a result of Passlogix's and Oracle's illegal actions in amounts that will be determined at trial, but believed to be more than $10,000,000, plus interest."

Overall, 2FA said it is seeking over $100 million, once punitive damages have been included.

2FA claimed Oracle knew, or should have known, that some of the intellectual property it was acquiring in the Passlogix deal was illicitly taken.

At the time of publication, Oracle chose not to comment due to it being a legal issue.

Oracle recently won a significant court case itself, also based around software theft.

Ellison's firm was handed a whopping $1.3 billion from SAP, which had acknowledged its TomorrowNow subsidiary had wrongfully downloaded millions of Oracle's files.

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