German business software producer SAP confirmed Friday it was paying US rival Oracle $359 million (288 million euros) to settle a bitter litigation fight.

SAP bought the service company TomorrowNow in 2005 with the intention of luring customers away from Oracle as its new subsidiary offered comparable services at much lower prices.

But in the framework of its agreed maintenance work for clients with Oracle software, TomorrowNow illegally downloaded copyrighted instruction manuals and other technical information from Oracle data bases.

Let there be peace

Oracle took SAP to court over the matter in 2007, and with the German company admitting the wrongdoing by its subsidiary, a jury initially awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages. But a federal judge in the US later lowered the amount to $272 million.

Finally, an appeals court in August of this year ruled that SAP would have to pay $356.7 million in damages plus $2.5 million in interest.

In separate statements Friday, both companies said they were content with the final settlement, putting the lid on the two firms' ferocious battle in various courts.

hg/cjc (Reuters, dpa)