A tool-gateway startup is suing the enterprise customer that evaluated it and then built its own

Runlayer, which sells a secure gateway for the protocol that connects models and agents to outside data and tools, has sued Rippling. The complaint describes nearly a year of intensive engineering collaboration during a product trial covered by a mutual non-disclosure agreement and a clause forbidding copying, during which Runlayer says it shared its roadmap and source code. The parties failed to agree a price; Runlayer alleges an insider then told its chief executive an internal near-clone was underway. Rippling confirms it is launching its own gateway and denies misusing any intellectual property.

What it means The connection layer between models and business data is thin enough to rebuild, which makes a deep enterprise trial a real commercial risk for anyone selling one.