Runlayer, which sells a secure Model Context Protocol gateway, has sued the workforce-management company Rippling for trade-secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of contract. The complaint became public on July 28, 2026 (Source: techcrunch.com).
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.
Response
Rippling has confirmed that it is launching its own MCP gateway and denies the intellectual-property allegations.
Status
Active. The court, docket number, and filing date beyond the month were not recorded in the available reporting; confidence is low pending a primary filing.
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.