Sprinklr, a $1.8 billion social media marketing startup, is being sued for $50 million for allegedly stealing another startup's technology

• Sprinklr, a $1.8 billion social media management startup, is being sued by Portland, Oregon-based Opal Labs, which accuses Sprinklr of stealing its intellectual property.
• The lawsuit alleges that one of Sprinklr's workers illicitly used an Opal employee account to view confidential information about Opal's marketing software.
• Opal is seeking $50 million in damages from Sprinklr.
  

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Sprinklr, a New York startup whose technology helps corporate customer service representatives monitor social media interactions, is facing a lawsuit over a partnership gone sour.

Opal Labs, a Portland, Oregon-based marketing technology firm, is suing Sprinklr for $50 million, accusing Sprinklr of stealing its intellectual property. The lawsuit was filed on September 7 in the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon, but wasn't widely publicized until this week.

"In an effort to extend its dominance into the marketing collaboration software and related services fields, [Sprinklr] has raided and hopes to crush Opal," the lawsuit reads. 

The suit, a copy of which was attained by Business Insider, describes a mutually beneficial partnership between the two companies that took a turn around 2016, when Paul Herman, an employee of one of Opal's clients, allegedly passed along administrative credentials to a Sprinklr employee. The Sprinklr employee used those credentials to log into Opal's systems and view proprietary information about Opal's software, the lawsuit charges. 

Opal contends in the lawsuit that Sprinklr is developing a marketing product similar to its own that it could not have created without snooping on Opal's system.

Herman left a program director role at Nike in February 2017 to join Sprinklr as a full-time employee, according to his LinkedIn profile. Currently, he's Sprinklr's vice president of its product and solutions enablement group.

Sprinklr, which raised $105 million last year at a valuation of $1.8 billion, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Among the company's customers are Nike and McDonald’s.

SEE ALSO: MarTech firm Sprinklr raises $105 million at a $1.8 billion valuation

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source http://www.businessinsider.com/sprinklr-is-being-sued-by-opal-labs-for-50-million-2017-11