PhantomAlert , a company that makes a Waze-like traffic smartphone app, has now sued its better-known rival for copyright infringement.

The Washington DC-based company argues in a Tuesday filing that after a failed data-sharing deal between itself and Waze collapsed in 2010, within two years, Waze apparently stole PhantomAlert’s "points of interest" database.

As the civil complaint states:

Among other methods, PhantomAlert determined that Waze had copied its Points of Interest database by observing the presence of fictitious Points of Interest in the Waze application, which PhantomAlert had seeded into its own database for the purpose of detecting copying. On information and belief, Waze copied the PhantomAlert database on multiple occasions after late 2012, re-incorporated the copied data into the Waze application, and continued to display the Points of Interest data to the users of the Waze application.

Then, as the case alleges, when Waze was sold to Google in June 2013, the company profited handsomely from this theft.

"Waze needed to grow its database to increase its value and become more attractive to potential acquirers," Karl Kronenberger, PhantomAlert’s attorney, said in a statement. "Our complaint alleges that Waze stole PhantomAlert’s database when Waze could not get it legally, and then sold itself to Google for over $1 billion."

The lawsuit asks the court to shut down Waze entirely, and to order Google to pay unspecified damages.

“I started PhantomAlert seven years ago as an entrepreneur with a dream, and now that dream has been crushed by companies that are profiting from the years of blood, sweat and tears our team put into our product," Joseph Scott Seyoum, PhantomAlert's CEO, said in the same statement.

Kronenberger did not respond to Ars’ request for comment as to how exactly this database was stolen.

Google also did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.