Infosys has firmly denied allegations of misappropriating trade secrets against it by Cognizant TriZetto, a subsidiary of Cognizant, in a U.S. federal court.
Cognizant’s reported lawsuit centers on accusations that Infosys unlawfully accessed and repurposed data from TriZetto’s Facets and QNXT software, both integral tools for healthcare insurers managing administrative functions.
The complaint alleges that Infosys used this data to develop its own competing software, thereby violating trade secret laws.
"Infosys is aware of the lawsuit. We deny all allegations and will defend our position in the court,” Infosys stated in response.
BT could not independently verify the allegations made in the lawsuit.
What complicates the dispute further is the intertwined histories of the companies' leadership.
Cognizant's CEO, Ravi Kumar S, was previously a top executive at Infosys, where he served as president and deputy COO before departing in October 2022. This connection deepens the competitive tension, especially given Cognizant’s hiring spree under Kumar, which included several executives poached from Infosys and other Indian IT giants such as Wipro.
Cognizant's recent appointment of Rajesh Varrier, another former Infosys executive, as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Cognizant India, underscores the ongoing poaching issue that has exacerbated the rivalry.
Infosys had already expressed concerns about Cognizant’s recruitment tactics last year, particularly regarding the loss of key personnel to its competitor.
This legal confrontation is not Cognizant’s first brush with trade secret disputes. Cognizant won $854 million from Atos Syntel in a separate dispute over Facets trade secrets in 2020. The award, according to a Reuters report. was later cut and then overturned on appeal last year, though the court found that Syntel was still liable for an amount of damages to be determined.