Lessons Learned From The Grouse River V. Oracle/NetSuite Trial

Several years ago, a Canadian firearms and outdoor sporting goods retailer called Grouse River Outfitters Ltd. ("Grouse River") sued Oracle Corporation ("Oracle") in federal court in the Northern District of California for fraud and other claims arising out of a NetSuite cloud-based business management software agreement and a related contract for professional services to implement the software solution. Grouse River argued that Oracle had completely failed to deliver the ERP solution that it had promised.

Over the course of the litigation Oracle was able to knock out several claims and to narrow the case, including whittling down the number of allegedly fraudulent statements and arguing that most were merely puffery. We have previously written here about Oracle's attack on the fraud-based claims. For its part, Grouse River voluntarily dismissed certain claims on the eve of trial.