WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal by SAP AG (>> SAP AG), meaning a jury verdict ordering the German business software maker to pay $345 million to peer Versata Software Inc for patent infringement remains intact.

In 2011, a jury at a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas issued its award, which was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in May 2013. In court papers, SAP said the award is now worth $391 million, including interest. The final amount will be determined by a federal judge at a later date.

Versata, which sells pricing software to auto dealers, utilities and telecom providers, said its software had been copied illegally in SAP applications.

SAP said in its petition that in June 2013, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board found that several of Versata's patent claims were invalid. Litigation on that issue is continuing in a separate case that is likely to be decided by the same appeals court.

The appeal board was set up by Congress as part of the 2011 America Invents Act as a way to review the validity of so-called business method patents.

Various companies, including Hewlett-Packard Co (>> Hewlett-Packard Company) and eBay Inc (>> eBay Inc), had encouraged the court to hear the case.

The case is SAP v. Versata, U.S. Supreme Court, 13-716.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Stephen Powell)

By Lawrence Hurley

Stocks treated in this article : eBay Inc, SAP AG, Hewlett-Packard Company