The company iPaladin, whose software is used by more than 160 family offices to manage their documents, data, and operations, filed a patent lawsuit against Orca last year, alleging that the competitor had copied iPaladin’s system.
The ongoing case, which could have major implications for the growing ecosystem of family-office software, has not been previously reported.
Jill Creager, a former attorney and banker, was the chief operating officer of a single-family office in 2009 when she began working on what would become iPaladin. After three years, she created the St. Petersburg, Florida-based company and it started taking on other customers. Since then, iPaladin has grown, become recognizable in the family-office industry, and established an advisory board of family-office executives that includes former NFL quarterback John Elway. It also filed for two patents in 2017, which were granted in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
Orca, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, was co-founded in 2017 by Gregor Feichtinger and Tomas Hurcik, who is the current CEO. Charmaine Tang, a former senior leader at Bank of America’s U.S. Trust, JPMorgan Chase, and BNY Mellon, is the CEO of Orca Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swiss company. Orca did not disclose how many U.S. single-family offices it currently counts as customers, or how many it works with globally.
The legal battle between the companies began on June 26, 2024, when iPaladin sent Orca a letter informing the company of the alleged patent infringements.
“We appreciate the possibility that, despite the very clear front-end similarities between Orca’s product and iPaladin’s patented technology, there may be differences on the back-end that we could not readily ascertain during our unavoidably limited investigation. Therefore, we would like to meet and confer to try and resolve this matter amicably,” the letter said.
Orca acknowledged the letter two days later, and attorneys corresponded on behalf of the companies, but no amicable meeting took place, according to court documents. iPaladin then sued the competitor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on September 30, 2024. “Despite this knowledge or willful blindness, Orca Defendants have acted with blatant disregard for iPaladin’s patent rights by continuing their infringing acts,” the complaint said.
Since then, the two parties have spent months tangling over whether the case is valid or can be tried by a Texas jury.
In January, Orca filed motions to dismiss the case. One argued that iPaladin’s claims about its method or system for archiving, retrieving, and hierarchically associating documents and information are “directed to an abstract idea, disclose no inventive concept, and are patent-ineligible.”
Another motion argued that the case should be dismissed because Orca America, a Delaware-based company and wholly owned subsidiary of Orca AG, does not have a principal place of business in the U.S., let alone Texas.
In other court documents, Orca said it was not given fair notice of the claims against it and that Orca America, created in April 2024, didn’t have any customers or sales. Hurcik also filed a declaration with a small portion of it redacted from the public record because it contained sensitive information about Orca.
At the end of February, the parties submitted a joint status report that effectively described a deadlock between them and proposed to Judge Ed Kinkeade filing deadlines and a timeline to move the case forward.
Throughout this spring and summer, new motions have either been denied or are pending, the complaint was amended, and replies were submitted, but the case continues.
Last week, while many other people vacationed or eased into Labor Day weekend, iPaladin and Orca met for a full day of mediation and did not resolve the dispute.
“iPaladin is committed to protecting its patents and its governance technology as it continues to evolve with the needs and demands of the space. [Jill] Creager wants the industry to know the foundational roots of iPaladin and its commitment to compliance, efficiency, and effectiveness,” the company told Modus. The company has a third patent pending and is drafting a fourth patent, it said.
iPaladin is seeking unspecified monetary damages for harm to the company and asking that Orca be ordered to permanently cease activities related to the patent infringements.
In a statement to Modus, Hurcik said: "Orca and its legal team are vigorously defending the company’s interests, and Orca remains confident in its position. Whether the case ultimately proceeds to trial will depend on a variety of factors, including rulings on several pending motions. At this juncture, it would be premature to predict that path. Orca respects the judicial process and believes it will ultimately be vindicated. At the same time, the company is always open to constructive dialogue and to finding a business-reasonable resolution.”
The result of the case could have significant implications on the expanding and evolving ecosystem of tech intended specifically for family offices. Several software companies, at least ostensibly, are either similar to iPaladin and Orca, or part of their software serves similar needs.
iPaladin declined to comment on whether other companies could be infringing on its patents.
The trial for the case is currently scheduled for November 2, 2026.
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