Oracle is at least as well-known for its aggressive licensing tactics as for its namesake database technology, and a recent dispute makes it clear that that reputation isn’t entirely unfounded.

In September 2014 Oracle launched what it calls a “license review” of customer Mars Inc., the confectionery company. That’s a common enough occurrence, but this one turned particularly ugly. After providing a whopping 233,089 pages of documentation at its own expense in its efforts over several months to satisfy Oracle’s demands, it said, Mars finally filed a lawsuit last fall in a San Francisco Superior Court petitioning the court to order Oracle to scale back its audit efforts.

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