Oracle has hired David Boies to argue its case against SAP. Oracle has made it clear in a 2008 filing with the court that its damages "are, at a minimum, well into the several hundreds of millions of dollars and likely are at least a billion dollars." Boies is the guy who won the Justice Department's antitrust suit against Microsoft although the judge's breakup decision didn't stick. He also lost Al Gore the presidency and his boys lost SCO its case against Linux. Maybe he and his people will understand this one better. Oracle charged SAP's now defunct discount maintenance subsidiary TomorrowNow with ripping off its IP. It looks like the Armonk-based Boies is going to argue this one himself judging from his pro hac vice admission to the California bar. The trial is set to start November 1. The judge wants the parties to settle beforehand but with Boies in the picture that doesn't look like that's gonna happen. SAP has already admitted TomorrowNow was off base. Boies represented Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in his litigation over the America's Cup race.