March 13 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly

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After 15 years of litigation, a copyright law battle between

software support company Rimini Street ( RMNI ) and tech giant

Oracle is headed back to a U.S. appeals court, as

Rimini fights to overturn $58 million in legal fees awarded to

Oracle in the case in September.

Rimini's lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Gibson, Dunn

& Crutcher in their opening brief this week asked the 9th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the fee award as unjustified.

A federal judge in Nevada awarded the fees to Oracle last

year after finding it had substantially prevailed on its

copyright infringement claims against Las Vegas-based Rimini,

which provided technical support for Oracle enterprise software

clients starting in 2008.

Oracle first sued Rimini in 2010, accusing it of illegally

using its software and support materials for Rimini clients.

Rimini was ordered to pay Oracle $90 million following a 2015

jury verdict, including $58.1 million in damages and $31.9

million in attorneys' fees and costs.

Rimini in a separate 2014 lawsuit asked a judge to rule that

it had stopped infringing Oracle's copyrights. The judge found

in a bench ruling in 2023 that Oracle prevailed on some of its

copyright allegations, though the 9th Circuit vacated most of

that decision in December.

Weil's Mark Perry, a lead appellate lawyer for Rimini,

argued in the company's latest appeal that Oracle had failed

"after more than a decade of scorched-earth litigation" to

succeed on copyright claims for which it once sought more than

$1.4 billion in damages.

"It is exceptionally clear that Oracle is not the prevailing

party and is not entitled to an award of the tens of millions of

dollars it spent losing this case," Rimini told the San

Francisco-based 9th Circuit.

Rimini said the case produced "a mixed-result" that does not

warrant awarding fees to either side. In the least, Rimini

argued, the appeals court should find that Oracle's fee award

was "dramatically excessive" and should be significantly

reduced.

Oracle and Rimini did not immediately respond to requests

for comment.

-- Eight U.S. states and the District of Columbia have asked a

federal judge to award them legal fees for winning an order in

federal court blocking Kroger's now-abandoned $25 billion deal

for grocery rival Albertsons.

U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson will weigh the fee

request. The states did not ask for a specific amount, but the

total could reach millions of dollars.

-- President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Office of the

Comptroller of the Currency, Jonathan Gould of Jones Day,

disclosed $1.6 million in salary on an ethics form submitted as

part of his nomination. Gould said he provided legal services to

banking and financial clients including Citigroup, JPMorgan

Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs.

In another filing, William Kimmitt, a nonequity partner at

law firm Kirkland & Ellis, disclosed $254,000 in salary on an

ethics form submitted as part of his nomination to a post at the

U.S. Treasury Department. Kimmitt said he provided legal

services to BASF and Dell, among other clients.

Trump has turned to some of the country's biggest law firms

to fill key slots, including Jones Day; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher;

and WilmerHale.

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