The case of alleged data theft filed by US-based Epic Systems against Tata Consultancy Services has reportedly moved to a higher court after the verdict that the latter must pay $420 million in penalty was upheld by a lower court. TCS had appealed against the verdict saying that the evidences presented did not support the penalty.
"TCS believes that the facts and evidence presented in court do not support the penalty imposed. We have filed an appeal against the order in the higher court, and are confident of a favourable outcome," Vish Iyer, global head of legal and corporate affairs at TCS told the Economic Times.
The Indian tech giant too has said that these employees violated the company ethics and that TCS did not use any of these data.
We are unwavering in our commitment to ethics, compliance and stringent IP protection. TCS did not misuse or derive any benefit from Epic's documents and will defend its position vigorously.
Wisconsin-based Epic Systems had filed a case against TCS, accusing the Indian IT giant of stealing its intellectual property. In the lawsuit, the firm TCS employees were placed as consultants to a Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center in Portland, and were meant to help implement an Epic system at the centre.
The employees allegedly pretended to be the workers of the medical centre and never revealed that they were, in fact, brought in as consultants. These employees then reportedly created a fake user account and stole over 6,000 confidential details on Epic's system development information.
Epic won the case in 2016, and the court ordered a penalty of $940 million. However, in 2017, the Wisconsin court judge reduced the penalty amount to $420 million saying that it must comply with the limits set in such cases.
A few months later, TCS said a $440-million letter of credit had been provided to Epic Systems, but believes that the penalty isn't in tune with the evidences presented in court. It then filed a notice of appeal with the Seventh Circuit Court in Chicago on March 22.
