US judge blocks ex-Palantir staffers from poaching workers for new AI firm

By Daniel Wiessner

Feb 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday granted Palantir Technologies' PLTR.O bid to block a former vice president and senior engineer from soliciting its employees to join the competing company they launched last year, Percepta AI.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken will be in place pending the outcome of Palantir's lawsuit filed in October claiming Percepta CEO Hirsh Jain and co-founder Radha Jain used Palantir's secret information to build a "copycat" AI software firm. It is not clear if they are related.

Oetken also barred Joanna Cohen, a former Palantir engineer now with Percepta, from breaching a confidentiality agreement she had signed with Palantir. But the judge denied Palantir's request for now to block the defendants from violating agreements they signed not to compete with the company or solicit its customers.

Oetken's opinion explaining his reasoning was sealed. The judge said he would publish a redacted version after lawyers on both sides proposed redactions.

Percepta is owned by venture capital firm General Catalyst and was publicly unveiled in October.

Palantir and General Catalyst did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the lawsuit, Palantir says that just like its own AI-powered software, Percepta's services are designed to make businesses and government agencies more efficient using data they already possess.

In court filings, the defendants have said that Percepta is a consulting and engineering firm and, unlike Palantir, does not sell software or provide data analytics.

Hirsh Jain was in charge of Palantir's healthcare portfolio, Radha Jain helped design and build the company's flagship software, and Cohen worked on AI solutions for individual customers, according to court filings. Hirsh Jain left Palantir to found Percepta in August 2024, and the other defendants followed.

Percepta hired at least 10 former Palantir employees within months of its founding last year, and nearly half its workforce are former Palantir staffers, according to the lawsuit.

Palantir says the defendants signed agreements barring them from competing with the company for one year after leaving, from soliciting Palantir customers or employees for two years, and from using any of the company's confidential information outside their employment.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of breaching those agreements and seeks to force them to comply with them.