H.P. Wins Suit Against Oracle Over Support for Servers

Hewlett-Packard accused Oracle of violating a contract when it decided last March that it would no longer make new versions of its database software compatible with H.P.’s high-end servers based on the Intel Corporation’s Itanium chips. Oracle maintained that it had no such contract.

The servers are used mostly by large corporations with rigorous computing needs.

Judge James P. Kleinberg of Santa Clara County Superior Court wrote on Wednesday that a contract existed between Hewlett and Oracle, and that Oracle was required to continue to offer its product suite on Hewlett’s Itanium server platform.

Oracle is required to port its products to Hewlett’s Itanium-based servers without charge, the judge ruled.

“The parties had a long history of trust and collaboration, the promises made by the Oracle executives were clear and unambiguous,” Judge Kleinberg wrote in the preliminary ruling, “and the parties’ relationship was very profitable for both companies.”

Oracle said it planned to appeal the decision.

“We made the decision as we became convinced that Itanium was approaching its end of life and we explained our rationale to customers,” Oracle said in a statement. “Nothing in the court’s preliminary opinion changes that fact.”

The dispute began after the companies became rivals when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems. The purchase moved Oracle into the server hardware field, in which it previously was a partner with Hewlett-Packard.

Also, Oracle hired Mark Hurd, H.P.’s former chief executive, in 2011 after he left Hewlett amid questions over his relationship with a female contractor.

Judge Kleinberg’s ruling did not address damages. It is possible that a jury will decide the issue.

Hewlett-Packard, which seeks as much as $4 billion in damages, called the ruling “a tremendous win” and said it expected Oracle to comply with its “contractual obligation as ordered by the court.”