German software maker SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) said on Tuesday that one of its units had made "inappropriate' downloads, as the company formally responds in a court filing to a lawsuit by U.S. rival Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL).

SAP's chief executive Henning Kagermann said in a statement that while the company's services subsidiary, TomorrowNow, downloaded the data from Oracle's web site, SAP never saw the information due to separate IT systems between both divisions.

"Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred,' Kagermann said.

TomorrowNow has access the Oracle software support materials as well as information from other companies, SAP said. However, it maintained that a computer "firewall' to prevent access any of the material.

In March, Oracle filed suit against SAP. Among the claims made against SAP is that it violated certain parts of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, Unfair Competition.

SAP also announced leadership changes at TomorrowNow in response to the problem. It appointed SAP America chief Mark White as executive chairman of TomorrowNow. He will manage operations, including compliance programs.

When I learned what happened, I promptly took action to strengthen operational oversight at TomorrowNow while assuring that we maintain excellent service for TomorrowNow's customers going forward, Kagermann said.

In a statement, Oracle said that it wants to determine the extent of the downloads and that it will cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation into SAP.

Oracle