Suit filed against TCS for Trade Secrets Infringement

13 May 2019

Categories: Intellectual Property News

May 13,2019:

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) has filed a suit to restrain Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) from unauthorized access to CSC's confidential, proprietary, source code and trade secret information.

A complaint has been filed before the United States District Court for The Northern District of Texas Dallas Division against TCS Ltd., Tata America International Corporation. CSC alleged that the IT giant of India used its trade secrets without any license to launch an insurance platform. CSC prays for punitive damages and other reliefs before the Court.

The case is on unauthorized use of trade secrets. The Uniform Trade Secret Act (TUTSA) describes the provisions of trade secrets. A trade secret is a technique used by business giants to manufacture its products.

CSC is one of the largest developers and distributors of software products. It provides a variety of services in the Insurance market. TCS America is registered to run its business in Texas. CSC's software includes Wealth Management Accelerator (the successor to VANTAGE-ONE), Performance Plus, Distribution Support System, Future First, NBA, VPMS, Policy Link and ALS. CSC has licensed Vantage, Cyber Life and Additional CSC products with Money Services, Inc. and now it is owned by TransAmerica.

In 2018, TCS entered in U. S. Life, Wealth and Insurance Market with a new partnership with TransAmerica. It’s a ten-year agreement between TCS (Third Party Administration) and TransAmerica for, worth $2 billion. It was declared in the press release that BaNCS software of TCS will support this service.

The plaintiff pointed in the plaint that TCS hired many employees from MSI. They are skilled in software documentation of CSC. Still, they have access to CSC source code on MSI servers, software documentation, and other confidential and proprietary of CSC information.

CSC alleges that TCS copied CSC's “ROR” (Rate of Return) source code for Vantage to develop BaNCS software platform for the United States. Further, it was also stated in the petition that TCS infringed Cyber Life software systems and Additional CSC Products. Robust software systems are the foundation for CSC's services.

The Plaintiff stated that defendant tortiously interferes with CSC'S software business. Therefore the Plaintiff prayed for a permanent injunction to restrain the use of CSC's software. The CSC claimed compensatory, exemplary damages and profits of defendants. In October 2017, TCS had to compensate Epic Systems Corp. with $420 million for using trade secrets without authorisation.