MCP startup Runlayer accuses Rippling of stealing its product idea
Runlayer, a startup that offers a secure Model Context Protocol gateway — a standard for letting AI models and agents securely pull in outside data and tools — has filed a lawsuit against HR software startup Rippling, according to the complaint seen by TechCrunch.
The lawsuit is a cautionary tale for anyone selling AI infrastructure to enterprise customers, especially to other tech companies, that increasingly have the engineering muscle to just build the thing themselves.
In the suit, Runlayer describes an extensive product trial conducted by Rippling as a prospective customer, during which the MCP startup shared everything from its product roadmap to its actual source code. The parties signed a mutual non-disclosure agreement and Rippling signed a product trial agreement with a clause that forbade it from copying Runlayer’s intellectual property or making derivative works, which is standard boilerplate in enterprise software trials.
Runlayer says in the complaint that...
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