US jury slaps $940 million fine on Tata group in trade secret case

[Genghis khan1]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...book.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOI


WASHINGTON: A US grand jury has slapped two companies of India's Tata group - Tata Consultancy Services and Tata America International Corp - with a $940 million fine in a trade secret lawsuit filed against them.

After days of hearing, the federal grand jury in the US State of Wisconsin ruled that Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Tata America International Corp. must pay $240 million to Epic Systems for ripping off its software.

Tatas have also been asked to pay another $700 million in punitive damages.

Epic Systems had accused TCS and Tata America International Corp, 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 its lawsuit, Epic had said that TCS took that data while consulting for its customer.

Epic said that it "recently learned from an informant" that TCS employees have been "fraudulently accessing" Epic's software beyond what the consulting contract required - and using Epic's software to improve their own competing product.
One TCS employee's account, which was 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.

Top Comment
Excellent! Indian crooks thinks that they are protected in India by mafia governments so that can do anything anywhere!Chandrak Baxi

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

This company routinely uses classified bidding documents from rivals and then they formally rework their own bids to make it more sweater not surprised the company got sued

 

[Skull and Bones]

TCS could have just bought the company, if their product has high market value.

 

[Viny]

Many times acts of employees personal interest or for rivals interest, many such incidents happen too. Where the company has to face the music because of its employees actions.

Data, technology and IP piracy is common in IT industry where aspiring talents take it as a way to build there on road.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

You have to be careful with any consulting service. One company we had hired to help build some custom software ended up peddling it to our competitors. Our competitors called us up saying on some help screens they could see our logo.

 

[Genghis khan1]

Epic said that it "recently learned from an informant"

Funny thing is, none other than their own employee most likely snitched on them. Way to go Indians.

 

[tested]

Funny thing is, none other than their own employee most likely snitched on them. Way to go Indians.

TCS is a MNC. It has employees from all over the world.

Secondly, if TCS did indeed do this, then they ought to be punished for it. The odds however are that some manager somewhere thought to make himself big and took the decision on his own.

 

[somebozo]

This company routinely uses classified bidding documents from rivals and then they formally rework their own bids to make it more sweater not surprised the company got sued

I know an ex-core developer of SAP who rolled out his own product competing with SAP and is actually better than SAP...but I am sure there is a lawsuit waiting for him very soon....

There is no culture of respecting intellectual property in India...and what TCS did is replicated in all spheres of Indian life..

MMRCA procurement deal being another such fiasco..I am sure there are some behind the scenes warnings from France which has triggered Indian government decision to procure 36 aircrafts finally..

Funny thing is, none other than their own employee most likely snitched on them. Way to go Indians.

Its a common practice in industry..make money from both sides...

You have to be careful with any consulting service. One company we had hired to help build some custom software ended up peddling it to our competitors. Our competitors called us up saying on some help screens they could see our logo.

Bundling and peddling others software and selling it too..
One consulting company in Saudi was caught for taking millions to develop software and actually selling them a customized an off the shelf product from another vendor in India...through a deal of OEM branding.

The client became suspicious and investigated the deal..


I was recently contact by an Indian company to supply some parts to their client in Saudi Arabia which are known to be exclusive for Emerson cooling system...I investigated the client and found the Indian company has simply copied entire unit of Emerson...using ditto same components as well..while nothing stops me from selling goods from my stock..i did not find it ethical to support someone with an unauthorized copy..and refused to sell as notified Emerson as well.

 

[my2cents]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...book.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOI


WASHINGTON: A US grand jury has slapped two companies of India's Tata group - Tata Consultancy Services and Tata America International Corp - with a $940 million fine in a trade secret lawsuit filed against them.

After days of hearing, the federal grand jury in the US State of Wisconsin ruled that Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Tata America International Corp. must pay $240 million to Epic Systems for ripping off its software.

Tatas have also been asked to pay another $700 million in punitive damages.

Epic Systems had accused TCS and Tata America International Corp, 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 its lawsuit, Epic had said that TCS took that data while consulting for its customer.

Epic said that it "recently learned from an informant" that TCS employees have been "fraudulently accessing" Epic's software beyond what the consulting contract required - and using Epic's software to improve their own competing product.
One TCS employee's account, which was 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.

Top Comment
Excellent! Indian crooks thinks that they are protected in India by mafia governments so that can do anything anywhere!Chandrak Baxi

Even big american companies have been accused of the same. Take AMD for example, they reverse engineered the intel's x386 in order to become a market player.

 

[somebozo]

Even big american companies have been accused of the same. Take AMD for example, they reverse engineered the intel's x386 in order to become a market player.

AMD used to make license manufacturing of Intel x86 but they later made significant design improvements over the base product..and Intel did not win anything against AMD because the x86 architecture wasn't invented by Intel and is already in public domain.

Many of the AMD vs Intel lawsuits have been over Intel unethical business practices with verdict often going against Intel..remember Intel itself is a licensee of x86 design..originally developed by IBM.

 

[GR!FF!N]

Corporate Espionage...

Every cormpany does this sort of nonsense,sometimes knowingly,sometimes unknowingly.TCS is one of the best when it comes on ethical practices..so,please know the background and facts before simple jumping by seeing the term "TATA" and starting to spew venom...Infact,TCS is an MNC.

By the way,this is not the end of the story...


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...e-secrets-theft-case/articleshow/51855594.cms

 

[my2cents]

AMD used to make license manufacturing of Intel x86 but they later made significant design improvements over the base product..and Intel did not win anything against AMD because the x86 architecture wasn't invented by Intel and is already in public domain.

You are partially right that Intel actually gave AMD rights to manufacture the x286 but they pulled the plug with x386 architecture. AMD took almost five years to come up with their own version of x386 by reverse engineering intel chip.When Intel gave AMD cross licensing agreement they did not envisage they were actually helping their rivals to steal their market share.

 

[somebozo]

You are partially right that Intel actually gave AMD rights to manufacture the x286 but they pulled the plug with x386 architecture. AMD took almost five years to come up with their own version of x386 by reverse engineering intel chip.When Intel gave AMD cross licensing agreement they did not envisage they were actually helping their rivals to steal their market share.

To stay competitive, AMD created its first original x86 design, a Pentium-equivalent called the K5. This CPU was roughly comparable to the Pentium's performance, but it came to market in 1996, a year after the Pentium Pro.

A tiny Silicon Valley company named NexGen, meanwhile, was doing what AMD couldn't: taking on Intel with a relatively miniscule team of just 60 engineers and a little funding from IBM. The company was headed by Atiq Raza, a brilliant Pakistani engineer educated in the United Kingdom and the United States, who had arrived in the US in 1979 with only $3,000 in cash to his name. (By 2009, Raza put his Palo Alto estate up for sale at $24 million; he ended up not selling it.) Raza wanted to take on Intel, too, but he knew that he couldn't do it at NexGen's current size.

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates showed an interest in NexGen and had a 45-minute meeting with Raza that stretched into a four-hour dinner. Gates suggested that Raza speak to Sanders since AMD owned a chip fab but needed a better product to build in it. Raza said he would like to talk with Sanders but said he didn't know how to reach the AMD CEO, much less get him to pay attention.

"The first time I was introduced to Jerry Sanders, he didn't even pause long enough to hear my name—he kept calling me Raja," Raza told Ars. "He did that nonstop for 45 minutes telling me how AMD is going to crush me. I stayed there with a smile on my face, but how do I communicate with such a person? Bill said, 'Jerry should not be underestimated—he has three qualities: he's smart, he's extremely egotistical, and he's completely random.'"

Gates picked up the phone.

"Without Bill making that call, we would not have had that momentum," Raza admitted.


Enlarge / The K6 debuted in 1997 and helped AMD ascend to its strongest position.
Yann Mousseaux
AMD purchased NexGen in 1995 for $615 million. Raza became president and chief operating officer of AMD and was widely viewed to be Sanders’ eventual successor—according to the Wall Street Journal, Sanders even dubbed Raza the "the Michael Jordan of microprocessor design." AMD also picked up NexGen's in-progress CPU, the Nx686. After some difficulties adapting the design for manufacturing in AMD's facilities (rather than the IBM factories for which it had been designed), AMD in 1997 produced a CPU that was competitive with Intel’s Pentium II but which could be inserted into the then-prevalent Socket 7 motherboards used by the original Pentium, allowing for easy in-place upgrades.

This CPU was called the K6, and marked a turning point for AMD—it could compete with Intel in both speed and price


http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33882559/ns/business-us_business/t/intel-pay-amd-billion-settle-lawsuits/

Bhutto nationalization..set Pakistan years behind!

 

[Hyperion]

When India gets caught with it's pants down, it's 'corporate espionage', everyone does it.... bla bla bla.............. and when others do it, it's an illegal 'sloppy copy' and UN, BN and TN need to sanction such nations............

Most... cut that..... ALL............ of you Indians are such sloppy liars that even a one month old baby can see through you...... my advice, don't, as it's only you, yourselves, that you end up cheating....

Corporate Espionage...

Every cormpany does this sort of nonsense,sometimes knowingly,sometimes unknowingly.TCS is one of the best when it comes on ethical practices..so,please know the background and facts before simple jumping by seeing the term "TATA" and starting to spew venom...Infact,TCS is an MNC.

By the way,this is not the end of the story...


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...e-secrets-theft-case/articleshow/51855594.cms

 

[GR!FF!N]

When India gets caught with it's pants down, it's 'corporate espionage', everyone does it.... bla bla bla.............. and when others do it, it's an illegal 'sloppy copy' and UN, BN and TN need to sanction such nations............

Most... cut that..... ALL............ of you Indians are such sloppy liars that even a one month old baby can see through you...... my advice, don't, as it's only you, yourselves, that you end up cheating....

OKK Hyperion..I'm an engineer in IT and I know how it works.And I'm not in a mood to spar with anyone..But perhaps you should search about these kind of lawsuits before making these comments,as you see,TCS is not an Indian Company and nor TCS India has been sued.Should I blame Pakistanis as "Fake Drugsellers" or "Fake Diploma holders" for what Axact,your top It companies did??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axact