IP theft in the accessibility world: Deque Systems files a lawsuit against BrowserStack
- Accessibility software used by U.S. Bank and PNC, Deque Systems has recently filed a lawsuit against BrowserStack, a web and mobile testing technology provider.
- The company claims that the IP theft is negatively impacting its ability to continue the work it has been doing to empower and give back to the differently abled community.
Deque Systems, an accessibility software provider used by U.S. Bank and PNC, among other top banks in the US, has recently filed a lawsuit against BroswerStack, a web and mobile testing technology provider claiming that BrowserStack had committed intellectual property theft.
BrowserStack is a venture-capital-backed company valued at $4 billion which is used by Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Capital One and Stripe among others. The company’s products are also used by Q2, which claims to be used by one in every ten digital banking platforms in America.
License first, steal later?
Deque Systems’ proprietary product called axe DevTools is an automated accessibility testing tool which the company claims was first purchased by BrowserStack and then taken apart to access the code. This code, the company claims, was then copied to build BrowserStack’s own set of accessibility testing tools, and brought to market by BrowserStack last year.
“When we looked at the extent of the copying, the theft was intentional, pervasive, blatant and frankly, really shameless. So they even use their work emails, with “browserstack.com” when they signed up for our trials. We have decided that we’re going to have to vigorously defend our intellectual property rights,” said Preety Kumar, CEO and founder of Deque Systems.
