A Wisconsin federal jury has slapped a $940 million penalty, including $700 million in punitive damages, on Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for allegedly stealing healthcare software from an American company, Epic Systems. The verdict is one of the most adverse handed down to an Indian company abroad. The software giant said it would appeal against it, as it can within 30 days of the trial judgment under US law.

• Epic Systems, a US based electronics medical records vendor, had accused TCS of stealing documents and other confidential information tied to the software it builds for healthcare companies to manage billing, insurance benefits management and referral services.
• It said a TCS employee reviewed Epic’s intellectual property under the pretence of doing consulting work for Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed health care company in the U.S, and in doing so downloaded Epic’s proprietary software to help build a rival system.
• Epic alleges that TCS contractors accessed Epic’s internal network to download the entire suite to help TCS build a competing product called Med Mantra.

TCS said the jury’s verdict on liability and damages was unexpected as it believes they are unsupported by the evidence presented during the trial.