Runlayer alleges Rippling copied its MCP gateway after enterprise trial
Runlayer has filed a lawsuit against HR software company Rippling, alleging that a nearly year-long product evaluation led to the copying of its secure Model Context Protocol gateway. The dispute concerns a category built around MCP, the open-source standard Anthropic introduced in November 2024, and follows Runlayer raising $42 million.
Why enterprise product trials create risk
Runlayer says the evaluation required intensive engineering collaboration and disclosure of its product roadmap and source code. Such access can be necessary when a customer must validate security, controls and integrations before approving complex AI infrastructure.
The risk is sharper when the prospective buyer is another technology company with the engineering capacity to build an equivalent system internally. A failed sale can therefore become both a commercial loss and a dispute over whether evaluation materials informed independent development.
Contracts, allegations and Rippling's response
The parties signed a mutual nondisclosure agreement. Rippling also signed a trial agreement barring it from copying Runlayer's intellectual property or creating derivative works. Runlayer says pricing negotiations failed, after which it terminated the trial.
Soon afterward, the complaint alleges, a Rippling insider warned founder and CEO Andrew Berman of an internal project that was “almost a 1 to 1 copy of Runlayer.” Runlayer claims trade-secret misappropriation, unfair competition and breach of contract. It has retained Sullivan & Cromwell.
Rippling confirms that it is launching an MCP gateway but denies misusing Runlayer's intellectual property.
“Rippling is launching a superior product for connecting AI tools to business data using only our proprietary information – we have every reason to win in this market,” a Rippling spokesperson said.
MCP gateways add security, control and agent-management capabilities to a protocol that is becoming a core layer of AI interoperability. Competition has intensified since Runlayer launched its product, increasing the chance that buyers will compare purchasing with internal development.
The practical lesson for vendors
For businesses selling technical platforms, an NDA alone is not a complete safeguard. Trials should use staged disclosure, access logs, purpose-specific data rooms and explicit limits on source-code review. The commercial team should also define termination procedures and evidence retention before engineering collaboration begins.