Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) Countersued by Rimini Street

The battle between Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) and Rimini Street is heating up as Rimini has now filed a lawsuit against Oracle where they allege "copyright misuse, defamation, disparagement, trade libel and unfair competition under the California Business and Professions Code."

Oracle filed a lawsuit against Rimini in January saying the business success of the company depends on the illegal downloading of Oracle's software support materials.

In a response against that original lawsuit, Rimini said this today: "Oracle and its predecessors began a systematic campaign to disrupt and halt Rimini Street's business since the inception of the company in 2005," the Las-Vegas-based company said in a statement. "As Rimini Street's success grew, so did Oracle's apparent determination and efforts to disrupt Rimini Street's growth."

Oracle said they don't mind healthy and strong competition, but they consider Rimini are running a business based on the theft of their intellectual property. 
 
Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said the actions by Rimini Street and CEO Seth Ravin is "massive theft."

With support and maintenance of software offered by Oracle accounting for 60 percent of their overall revenue in the last quarter, you can see how much is at stake in this battle. That sector is the key to the success of the software giant.

Rimini now offers support to customers who have acquired Oracle software, which is what the lawsuit is about; whether it is being done legally or not.

The business strategy of Rimini is to offer the maintenance and support services at discount prices, a key advantage, especially in difficult economic times as these.

Oracle believes Rimini is generating their business with Oracle customers by stealing their software support materials.