Cognizant Sues Infosys Over Alleged Theft Of Software Trade Secrets

Cognizant TriZetto has filed a lawsuit against Indian technology giant Infosys in a Texas federal court, accusing the company of unlawfully acquiring and utilising trade secrets related to its healthcare insurance software. 

The New Jersey-headquartered firm claimed that Infosys extracted data from its proprietary databases to develop and market competing software products. The disputed software, TriZetto’s Facets and QNXT, is widely employed by healthcare insurers for automating administrative tasks.

The lawsuit alleged that Infosys misappropriated TriZetto’s software to create "Test Cases for Facets," a product that Cognizant says improperly repackages its confidential data. Additionally, Cognizant accused Infosys of developing tools to extract sensitive information from QNXT, further infringing on its trade secrets.

TriZetto was acquired by Cognizant in 2014. It currently operates under the company's healthcare practice.

As per a Reuters report, Infosys has firmly denied the allegations in a statement, pledging to defend itself in court. Meanwhile, Cognizant is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a court injunction to halt what it describes as the ongoing misuse of its proprietary information.

This legal battle echoes a previous case in 2020, where Cognizant won an USD 854 million verdict against Atos’ Syntel over similar trade secret violations involving Facets. Although the award was later reduced and overturned on appeal, the court maintained that Syntel was liable for a yet-to-be-determined amount of damages. 

(Inputs from Reuters)