Oracle urges HP to drop charges

Oracle says a former Hewlett-Packard executive has been falsely accused of stealing trade secrets in one of several ongoing legal skirmishes between the two technology heavyweights. Oracle demanded in a letter sent to Hewlett-Packard on Thursday that it drop its lawsuit against Adrian Jones, a former senior vice-president who was in charge of HP's server, storage and networking businesses in Asia before going to work for rival Oracle. HP says Jones resigned in February before he was about to be fired for allegedly failing to disclose a "close personal relationship" with a subordinate and submitting thousands of dollars in expenses for visiting the subordinate without a legitimate business purpose. HP sued Jones alleging that he downloaded files and e-mails detailing HP's secrets before he quit.