A U.S. district court judge has ordered that Oracle's lawsuit against SAP and its TomorrowNow subsidiary be sent to mediation, according to a court document posted on www.tnlawsuit.com, a Web site SAP set up for the case.

SAP spokesman Andy Kendzie declined to comment in much detail Thursday about Judge Martin J. Jenkins' ruling, which occurred after a case management conference on Tuesday, according to the document.

"Our preference had always been that we explored mediation," Kendzie said.

Oracle filed suit against SAP and TomorrowNow last year, charging that TomorrowNow employees illegally downloaded data from a secure Oracle support Web site, and used it to court Oracle's customers. The initial complaint alleges that "corporate theft on a grand scale" had occurred.

SAP has said TomorrowNow was authorized to download materials from Oracle's Web site on behalf of TomorrowNow's customers, but also acknowledged "some inappropriate downloads of fixes and support documents occurred at TomorrowNow." SAP has asserted that this information remained in TomorrowNow's systems and that SAP itself did not gain access to Oracle's intellectual property.

TomorrowNow provides third-party support for Oracle's PeopleSoft, Siebel and J.D. Edwards software products.

Oracle could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.