I've known many entrepreneurs who have jumped to the conclusion that their idea was stolen based on the problem they are trying to solve. Then, they see similar

I've known many entrepreneurs who have jumped to the conclusion that their idea was stolen based on the problem they are trying to solve. Then, they see similarities in the design that reinforce their confirmation bias. The article talks about this huge problem...the genesis of his idea was this problem that 100s of people, in the airline industry, at Delta, all faced - including their technical teams, operations leadership, executives, etc. With all of those folks facing the same problem, it's not unexpected that some come with the same general solution. Practically speaking, whether it was the pilot or the technical team at Delta, anyone building a chat solution would be familiar with the same chat UIs; at some level, when have any of us used an app that had a truly unique design? Many would argue that the UX best practice is to use familiar elements, from popular apps, so not to have to re-educate the user. That doesn't mean they didn't steal the app. However, in my experience, people with all sorts of ideas hit up executives at big companies all the time. That repetition is the basis for brand marketing. It's likely they were pitched a similar solution to that same problem both before and after that person met with their team. Barring some egregious fraud, not mentioned in the article, or some major bad acting, it seems like a hard argument to make.