Plaintiff Won Compensatory Damages Of $168.5 Million, With The Merits Judgment Sustained After SCOTUS Refused To Grant A Certiorari Petition.
At the federal level, the Defend Trade Secrets Act has a fee-shifting provision which basically allows a prevailing plaintiff to seek recovery of discretionary attorney’s fees from a district court if the trade secret misappropriation was willful and malicious and does the same for a prevailing defendant if the action was pursued in bad faith, which can be proved through circumstantial evidence. (18 U.S.C. §1836(b)(3)(D).) That allows a district judge a wide berth to award substantial fees to either side in the right case.
That is what happened for a prevailing plaintiff in Computer Sciences Corp. v. Tata Consultancy Services Limited, No. 3:19-cv-970 (N.D. Tex. Sept. 24, 2026 fee order). Plaintiff won a $168 million damages verdict against defendant under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, comprised of $56 million in compensatory damages and $112 million in punitive damages. That award was sustained by the Fifth Circuit, with a certiorari petition challenging the merits judgment denied earlier this year by the SCOTUS. After the dust settled, plaintiff was awarded $15.3 million in fees under the fee-shifting provision of the Act, with the district judge indicating the defense should be “thankful” it was not more.