MapMyIndia Charges Ola of Data Theft to Develop Ola Maps

CE Info Systems, the parent company of MapMyIndia, has accused Ola of illicitly copying data to develop its new Ola Maps interface. According to a report by Forbes India, the allegation claims that Ola Electric has been caching and saving MapMyIndia’s data, co-mingling it, and reverse engineering the licensed product obtained through a 2021 agreement.

The legal notice reportedly highlights that Ola's actions violate the terms of this agreement, which explicitly prohibits co-mingling and reverse engineering under Intellectual Property laws. The notice also contests Ola’s claim of developing its API and map data independently through open sources.

Forbes India further reports that the legal notice emphasizes the breach of the 2021 agreement, stating that, Ola's actions violate the terms of the 2021 agreement, which explicitly prohibits co-mingling and reverse engineering under Intellectual Property laws.

“By indulging in such unscrupulous and illegal activities, you have acted in blatant defiance of the terms and conditions of the agreement and have further infringed the copyright vested exclusively in our client pertaining to the source code,” the notice reads.

In early July, Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola, announced on X that Ola had launched Ola Maps, completely transitioning away from using Google Maps and Azure. This move was intended to reduce their mapping service expenditure from ₹100 crore annually to zero.

This announcement coincided with Ola Electric’s ₹6,100-crore IPO, with anchor investors set to begin bidding on August 1. However, the rollout of Ola Maps has been clouded by these serious allegations from CE Info Systems. The legal notice accuses Ola of misusing confidential information and trade secrets that belong exclusively to MapMyIndia.

“The said illegal actions and the unfair trade practices adopted by you with the sole objective of unjustly enriching yourself to the detriment of our client’s business interest are unacceptable,” CE Info Systems added in its notice.