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“We do not use any customer data to train our models without explicit authorization to do so,” a Figma spokesperson said in a statement. “Even with that authorization, we take additional steps to de-identify that data and protect our customers’ privacy, and ensure that our training is focused on general patterns – not on customers’ unique content, concepts and ideas.”

“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.

The case is Khan v. Figma Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:25-cv-10054.

For the proposed class: Carter Greenbaum and Casey Olbrantz of Greenbaum Olbrantz; Tina Wolfson, Robert Ahdoot and Theodore Maya of Ahdoot & Wolfson; Joseph Delich and Kyle Roche of Freedman Normand Friedland

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