Rippling hits back at NYC AI startups trade secret lawsuit in messy legal battle

HR software giant Rippling is hitting back at a lawsuit from NYC AI startup Runlayer, which accused the rival of stealing its trade secrets – alleging in a separate complaint that it was actually Runlayer who mimicked its patented technology.Runlayer’s platform “infringes Rippling’s patents, steals its intellectual property, and drafts off the substantial time and resources Rippling spent developing this technology over the past decade,” states a complaint filed Monday in US District Court for Delaware.It accused Runlayer – which is backed by tech billionaire Vinod Khosla – of “free-riding” off of its patented software technologies, “causing actual damages in the form of lost sales, lost customers, and price erosion.”In separate court filings, Rippling also denied the claims in Runlayer’s lawsuit last month, which alleged Rippling stole the smaller firm’s trade secrets to “build essentially a clone” of its safety and governance product during their commercial partnership.“It takes a certain boldness to accuse a competitor of violating intellectual property laws while infringing on that competitor’s inventions.But that’s exactly what Runlayer has done here,” a spokesperson for Rippling told The Post.“Having manufactured claims against Rippling to distract from its business failures, it now has to face a lawsuit for repeatedly copying Rippling’s inventions in building its own products.”Runlayer responded that Rippling’s lawsuit is simply retaliation and an attempt to distract from the original litigation.“This is a desperate, retaliatory ploy to distract from the fact Rippling misappropriated our proprietary technology,” Andrew Berman, CEO and co-founder of Runlayer, told The Post.“We clearly have a standout AI product that has nothing to do with these patents.

No attempt to bully or distract will prevent us from protecting our IP and continuing to innovate and create the best product for our fast-growing customer b...