Virginia-based Deque Systems has filed a lawsuit against Mumbai-based BrowserStack, accusing the start-up of intellectual property (IP) theft.
Founded in 2011 by Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal, BrowserStack is a unicorn that offers a cloud web and mobile testing platform. It enables developers to test their websites and mobile applications across various browsers, operating systems, and real mobile devices on-demand.
The lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in March 2024 alleges the start-up of copyright infringement, breach of contract, and false advertising.
The US-based company has alleged that BrowserStack's model of accessibility testing is copy of its proprietary accessibility testing product. The Mumbai-based unicorn entered in the accessibility testing market in 2023.
Accessibility testing is a process of making web and mobile applications easily accessible to people with disabilities such as visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive impairment. Reported by Moneycontrol, in an interview, Deque Systems' founder and CEO Preety Kumar alleged that BrowserStack had purchased the accessibility testing tool and then obtained the access code.
Deque Systems has alleged that BrowserStack tried to purchase a subscription to the product with a generic email like “test@browserstack.com”, the report added.
The Mumbai-based SaaS unicorn began as a bootstrapped start-up for approximately seven years. In 2018, it secured $50 million in Series A funding from Accel. Recently, the company's valuation soared to over $4 billion following a $200 million investment in its Series B round, led by Mary Meeker's BOND, with participation from Insight Partners and existing investor Accel.
