A New York-based entrepreneur has filed a lawsuit against Uber and its founder, Travis Kalanick, and other co-defendants, alleging that they stole the idea for the phone-enabled on-demand car service.

The suit, which was filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Kevin Halpern founded a startup called Celluride back in 2003, long before Uber. Halpern sued Uber for misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion, and breach of contract, and he wants the court to assign "compensatory damages." (Celluride now appears to be defunct.)

"These claims are completely baseless," Kristin Carvell, an Uber spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We will vigorously defend against them."

The offices of Halpern’s San Francisco-based lawyer, Christopher Dolan, did not respond to Ars’ question as to why this suit is being filed now, years after Uber began operation.

The suit alleges that Kalpern began working on his project and began quietly meeting with other entrepreneurs and investors. Through one of these meetings in San Francisco, Halpern apparently met Kalanick.

The suit notes, "At the time, unlike the persona portrayed today of a dismissive and aggressive mogul, Kalanick was an approachable fellow entrepreneur who had been humbled by failure."

After apparently being assured that Kalanick would hold the information in confidence, Halpern shared with Kalanick more detailed information, including the above slide. By 2008, after Halpern had shared even more information about the company with him, Halpern claims that Kalanick took the information to an investor meeting in Hawaii and launched Uber in 2009.