Anysource, Inc. v. People Center, Inc. was a federal lawsuit in which Runlayer, which sells a secure Model Context Protocol gateway, sued the workforce-management company Rippling for trade-secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of contract. Runlayer filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 28, 2026, and it became public the same day (Source: techcrunch.com; courtlistener.com). The parties stipulated to dismissal with prejudice on August 19, 2026; no ruling on Runlayer's motion for a preliminary injunction appears on the docket (Source: courtlistener.com).
| Plaintiff | Anysource, Inc., d/b/a Runlayer |
| Defendant | People Center, Inc., d/b/a Rippling |
| Court | U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:26-cv-06410 (Judge Denise L. Cote) |
| Filed | July 28, 2026 |
| Cause | Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1836(b); unfair competition; breach of contract |
| Status | Dismissed with prejudice by stipulation, August 19, 2026 |
Claims
Runlayer alleges that during "nearly a year of intensive engineering collaboration," conducted while Rippling was a prospective customer, Rippling received Runlayer's product roadmap and source code under a mutual non-disclosure agreement and a trial agreement barring copying or derivative works, and then built a clone after the parties failed to agree on price.
The pleaded causes of action are trade-secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of contract. The complaint attached the non-disclosure agreement and the trial agreement as exhibits, and Runlayer filed with it a proposed order to show cause seeking a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery (Source: courtlistener.com).
Response
Rippling has confirmed that it is launching its own MCP gateway and denies the intellectual-property allegations (Source: techcrunch.com).
On August 10, 2026 Rippling, as People Center, Inc., sued Anysource for patent infringement in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (No. 1:26-cv-01007, assigned to Judge Colm F. Connolly), asserting U.S. Patent Nos. 11,435,994 B1, 12,032,940 B2 and 11,789,941 B2 (Source: courtlistener.com).
Procedural history
The case was assigned to Judge Denise L. Cote, with Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn designated for referred matters. After a show-cause hearing on August 3, 2026, the court directed Runlayer to identify the discrete trade secrets on which it sought expedited discovery and set a briefing schedule on the injunction motion. On August 6 the court ruled that expedited discovery was denied if Rippling's internally created MCP gateway would be used exclusively by Rippling for the HR services it provides its clients, but that if Rippling intended to offer the gateway for sale and use by others, Runlayer could take limited expedited discovery on a compressed schedule ending in oral argument on August 20. An interim protective order was entered on August 8, and on August 10 the court referred the case to the magistrate judge for settlement; a settlement conference was held on August 11. Runlayer filed its reply brief on August 17 and Rippling a sur-reply on August 19, when the court also denied a Runlayer letter-motion to compel further discovery (Source: courtlistener.com).
On August 19, 2026 Runlayer filed a stipulation under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) dismissing the action with prejudice against People Center, Inc. (Source: courtlistener.com). Rippling filed a stipulation of dismissal in the Delaware patent case the same day (Source: courtlistener.com). Neither docket records the terms of any settlement.
Status
Dismissed with prejudice on August 19, 2026. No ruling on the preliminary-injunction motion and no terms of resolution appear on the public docket.
Relationships
- related: Model Context Protocol (MCP) — the protocol layer the disputed product implements.
- related: Agentic AI — MCP gateways sit in the agent tool-access path.
- instance-of: AI Liability.