The Perplexity AI lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court accuses the AI search company of exploiting a prospective partnership to obtain and use a Swiss startup’s confidential wake-word technology.
SyteMLLabs, which operates as DaVoice, brought the case on Thursday, alleging Perplexity misappropriated its trade secrets after the companies entered into confidentiality and licensing discussions last year. According to the complaint, DaVoice has developed a system that continuously listens for an activation phrase with more than 90 percent accuracy while keeping costs below market levels.
DaVoice says a wake-word system is a key checkpoint for AI assistants, requiring high accuracy in detecting the trigger phrase, a low rate of false activations, and efficient power usage. The company contends Perplexity obtained access to sensitive materials through a mutual confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement and a master subscription agreement, then used that information to speed development of its own wake-word implementation.
In court filings, DaVoice alleges Perplexity misused proprietary source code, inference logic, network architecture, training approaches, and training data to build a competing system. The complaint asserts claims under federal and California trade secret statutes, as well as breach of contract and fraudulent inducement, and seeks compensatory and royalty damages along with exemplary damages for alleged willful and malicious conduct.
DaVoice is represented by attorneys from Susman Godfrey LLP.
Perplexity AI lawsuit response
Perplexity disputed the allegations, calling the Perplexity AI lawsuit a baseless attempt to claim ownership of standard wake-word technology. In a statement, Chief Communication Officer Jesse Dwyer said recognizing a spoken activation phrase is not unique to DaVoice and that the agreement signed by DaVoice preserves Perplexity’s right to develop its own similar or competitive products. Dwyer added that the company expects to prevail in court.
Perplexity, based in San Francisco and reportedly backed by investors including Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, has faced multiple legal challenges. The company has been sued over alleged scraping and repackaging of news content, including cases by the New York Times, Dow Jones, and the New York Post, as well as separate suits from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster.
Last month, Perplexity won at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which lifted a lower court order that had blocked its shopping assistant tool from accessing Amazon’s website. The tool compares products, prices, and reviews for users.