The group said its US subsidiary TomorrowNow had legally downloaded support documents from the website of Oracle but had also made "some inappropriate downloads of fixes and support documents."
SAP stressed however that the rest of the group did not have access to the intellectual property downloaded by the US unit.
"What was downloaded at TomorrowNow stayed in that subsidiary's separate systems. SAP did not have access to Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow," the group said.
SAP said these comments were contained in a response filed on July 2 after Oracle lodged a complaint in a federal court in San Francisco March 22.
Oracle complained that SAP had violated US and Californian fraud legislation and engaged in unfair competitive prices.
SAP also said the US Department of Justice had requested it and TomorrowNow provide certain documents. Both intend to fully cooperate with the request.
"Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred," said SAP's chief executive Henning Kagermann.
SAP said TomorrowNow, which provides system maintenance, often downloaded Oracle support materials for and on behalf of its customers, some of which run Oracle rather than SAP applications.
Third-party maintenance providers like TomorrowNow have access to Oracle customer service and support materials through their customers' passwords.
SAP said that it had intentionally created an organisational structure that separated TomorrowNow and the rest of the company to ensure it did not have access to Oracle material legally downloaded by the US subsidiary.
SAP said it was satisfied that neither SAP in Germany SAP America accessed Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow.