Federal Jury in Dallas Awards $210M in Software Trade Secrets Trial

A jury in North Texas recently returned a $210 million verdict in favor of business software company Computer Sciences Corporation in a trade secrets dispute with Tata Consultancy Services after finding Tata stole source code to “unfairly compete” in the life insurance and annuities administration and processing market.

At issue in the trial were two proprietary software platforms owned by CSC that are used to administer and process annuities and life insurance premiums across the country — the Vantage-One/Wealth Management Accelerator and CyberLife. CSC told the jury that developing those sophisticated programs took decades of development and millions of dollars and that Tata unlawfully misappropriated the source code in an effort to compete without making the same kind of development investment as CSC.