The Northern District of California recently granted judgment as a matter of law to defendant SAP, ruling that plaintiff Oracle, awarded $1.3 billion in damages by a jury for SAP’s unauthorized use of copyrighted software support materials, is not entitled to actual damages in the form of a “hypothetical license” fee.  Specifically, the court held that Oracle offered no evidence to prove that SAP would have entered into a license—such as past licensing history or previous licensing practices—and that Oracle therefore failed to establish an objective, nonspeculative license price through evidence of “benchmark” transactions.