By Angel Au-Yeung

An AI startup that Palantir has sued for allegedly poaching its workers and stealing company secrets has denied the allegations and asserted in a legal filing Monday that Palantir is trying to "scare others away from leaving."

Percepta, an AI company launched by two ex-Palantir employees and owned by venture firm General Catalyst, disputed Palantir's claims that it violated noncompetition agreements.

"In truth, Palantir is looking to scare others away from leaving and destroy Percepta before it can grow further," lawyers for the startup said in the filing.

In October, Palantir sued Percepta, alleging its two co-founders -- Hirsh Jain and Radha Jain (no relation) -- had stolen trade secrets and violated their nonsolicitation agreements. It also accused a third employee, Joanna Cohen, of stealing confidential documents from Palantir before she left to go work for Percepta.

Palantir's litigation joins a wave of legal battles over trade secrets and anticompetitive behavior in the AI sector. Elon Musk's xAI sued ex-employees and competitors for alleged infractions, while data-labeling startup Scale AI sued competitor Mercor and a former employee who left to go work for Mercor for allegedly stealing trade secrets. Palantir is co-founded by a group that includes Chief Executive Alex Karp and Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist.

The lawsuit against Percepta hangs on noncompetition agreements that Radha Jain and Cohen signed as part of their employment contracts with the company. Percepta said in its rebuttal that these agreements are "so broad that -- if enforced according to Palantir's interpretation -- it would prevent them from working for any company that uses AI to help customers or clients to solve problems anywhere in the world for 12 months."

In a previous complaint, Palantir accused Cohen of sending herself highly confidential documents around the time she resigned from Palantir in March 2025. It alleged she used her personal phone to take photographs of confidential information on her Palantir computer in "an obvious effort to evade Palantir's data system."

Percepta said in its filing that the photographs were of public-facing content drawn from Palantir's website. Cohen took the screenshots on her phone as a way to help herself complete tasks during her offboarding, some of which happened on two days at the start of her honeymoon, according to the filing. "The photos were part of a rushed, good-faith transition after she gave notice," the Percepta attorneys said.

The lawsuit asks a judge to deny Palantir's requests, which included enforcing Hirsh Jain's, Radha Jain's and Cohen's contractual obligations to Palantir.

Write to Angel Au-Yeung at angel.au-yeung@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 13, 2026 12:05 ET (17:05 GMT)

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