SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court is refusing Oracle Corp.’s request to reinstate a $1.3 billion verdict it won against German rival SAP SE in a long-running copyright dispute.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday that the jury’s award was excessive. A trial judge in 2011 reached the same conclusion and slashed the verdict from $1.3 billion to $272 million.

The appeals court gave Oracle a choice between an award of $356.7 million or a new trial. An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment.

The legal battle revolves around SAP’s $10 million acquisition of the small software services firm TomorrowNow, which helped service Oracle applications.

Oracle uncovered evidence that TomorrowNow was breaking into Oracle’s computers to steal instruction manuals and other technical information about software Oracle had copyrighted.

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