Tata Consultancy Services and Tata America International Corp have been slapped with a $940 million fine by a US grand jury, in a trade secret lawsuit filed against them. Epic Systems accused TCS and TAIC, in a lawsuit filed in October 2014, in US District Court in Madison which was amended in January and December 2015, of “brazenly stealing the trade secrets, confidential information, documents and data” belonging to Epic.
In the lawsuit, the company said that TCS took that data while consulting for its customer. It said it “recently learned from an informant” that TCS employees have been “fraudulently accessing” Epics' software beyond what the consulting contract required, also using Epic's software to improve their own competing product. A TCS employee's account, used in India and several US locations, downloaded 6,477 documents, according to Epic. “Rather than compete lawfully with Epic, TCS has engaged in an apparently elaborate campaign of deception to steal documents, confidential information, trade secrets, and other information and data from Epic, for the purpose of realising technical expertise developed by Epic over years of hard work and investment,” the lawsuit said.
In response, TCS had denied the allegations saying it has not misused or taken any benefit from documents downloaded from Epic System's user web portal. “While TCS respects the legal process, the jury verdict on liability and damages were unexpected as the company believes they are unsupported by the evidence presented during trial. TCS plans to defend its position vigorously in appeals... TCS appreciates the trial judge's announcement... that he is almost certain he will reduce the damages award,” it said.
