IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on November 21 said it will make a provision of $125 million as an ‘exceptional item’ in its third-quarter results in relation to a trade secret lawsuit filed by US-based Epic Systems.
Epic Systems had filed the lawsuit against TCS and Tata America International Corp in 2014, accusing the Tata Group companies of stealing its intellectual properties to develop its own while it was contracted to implement Epic’s healthcare software.
The US Supreme Court on November 20 upheld the District Court of Wisconsin’s verdict to charge $140 million in punitive damages, rejecting TCS’ appeal against it
Scaled down damages
TCS had been found guilty by a jury in 2016 and initially ordered to pay damages of $940 million to Epic Systems. After further hearings, a year later the fine was reduced to $420 million, which included $280 million in punitive and $140 million in compensatory damages.
The punitive damages were later held to be excessive on TCS’s appeal and the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin had reduced it to $140 million in 2022.
Published on November 22, 2023
