The lawsuit said the company used its customers’ data and intellectual property without permission to train its generative AI tools, which according to the complaint led to San Francisco-based Figma’s “sky-high valuation” in a $1.2 billion initial public offering earlier this year.
Spokespeople for Figma did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint.
“This case underscores a simple and important principle: consumers and businesses have a right to ensure that their most sensitive and proprietary data and unique creative works are not being used to secretly train AI models,” plaintiffs’ attorney Carter Greenbaum of Greenbaum Olbrantz said in a statement.
The lawsuit is one of a slew of cases brought against tech companies over their use of content without permission to train generative AI systems. Most of those lawsuits focus on copyright infringement claims, unlike the Figma lawsuit, which alleges the company stole customer trade secrets and illegally accessed their data.
Founded in 2012, Figma provides cloud-based collaborative design tools, with a roster of marquee clients including Alphabet, Microsoft and Netflix. Figma has also partnered with OpenAI to integrate its app into ChatGPT.
Firms like Figma are racing to integrate generative AI tools that automate tasks like image creation, layout suggestion and code generation. According to the lawsuit, Figma automatically opted users into allowing the company to use their data to train its AI software without informing them or receiving permission.
“For years Figma promised its customers that Figma would not use their data for its own purposes, including to train its AI models,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the value of Figma users’ intellectual property is “reasonably measured in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.” The plaintiffs requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order permanently blocking Figma from using AI models that violate its customers’ rights.
