OpenAI Calls Apple's Trade Secrets Lawsuit 'Careless and Oddly Personal' as Legal Battle Escalates

OpenAI says Apple's trade secrets lawsuit is "aggressive and oddly personal"

OpenAI has accused Apple of waging a "careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit" in a blog post rebutting the iPhone maker's claims that the AI start-up stole top-secret information. "We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," the ChatGPT maker wrote on Monday evening, accusing Apple of "making vague accusations" and "trying to change their narrative." The post marks the latest escalation in a dispute that began last month when Apple filed a lawsuit claiming OpenAI had stolen hardware designs as it planned to launch its own AI-focused consumer devices. The dispute comes as the two companies encroach on each other's territory, with OpenAI venturing into consumer products and Apple joining forces with Google to revamp its Siri voice assistant. OpenAI and Apple had previously partnered to integrate AI technology into Apple's products. But the relationship began to sour after OpenAI last year acquired io, the design studio founded by former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive, and hired a string of Apple employees. Apple alleged in its lawsuit that more than 400 of its former employees now worked at OpenAI. It said it had received no response from OpenAI in February after contacting the start-up to warn it of an internal investigation into the potential theft of Apple's trade secrets. OpenAI said Apple's lawyers had "emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names" and "claimed they had a discussion with our General Counsel, which they now concede never happened." The start-up said Apple "never raised the specific allegations in this lawsuit at that time" and "in fact told us that they were 'resolving any issues'. We then heard nothing for five months until they sued." Apple alleged in its lawsuit that Chang Liu, a former employee who worked on some of its "most sensitive product development programs," accessed Apple's trade secrets after leaving the company in January. However OpenAI said Apple employees had themselves contacted Liu "and asked for his help to locate this information," something the iPhone maker "only now admits." Apple also named in its lawsuit a second former employee, OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Tan, whom it accused of seeking out proprietary information when interviewing Apple's employees. "Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies," wrote OpenAI. Apple on Monday sought a preliminary injunction in the US to prevent former employees and OpenAI from accessing, using or disclosing its trade secrets. It also filed a second motion asking the court to expedite discovery and order several OpenAI employees, including Liu and Tan, to sit for depositions. OpenAI said Apple's request for a preliminary injunction was "both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets." "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details. This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation," the ChatGPT maker wrote. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI says Apple's own security practices undermine its trade secrets case

OpenAI's motion to dismiss Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, along with newly filed exhibits, reveals the company's legal defense strategy. Rather than focusing on whether former Apple employees working at OpenAI had accessed certain information, the AI company argues that Apple's own security practices and offboarding procedures weaken its claim that the information qualifies as legally protected "trade secrets." Apple's complaint, filed in July, accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to obtain confidential hardware information from former Apple engineers. This week, Apple asked the court to expedite discovery, saying its internal investigation indicates some additional former employees may have participated in, or witnessed, the alleged theft of trade secrets. In its motion, OpenAI argues that Apple allowed employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work and failed to properly revoke access after they left the company. It also submitted text message records showing that an Apple manager remained logged into the personal iCloud account of defendant and former Apple engineer Chang Liu after he left the company to transfer files, and later asked him for help with technical questions about Apple projects. OpenAI also accuses Apple of omitting the consequences of its own "inexplicable information-management practices" from its original complaint, noting that the company failed to properly secure its systems when employees departed, creating confusion and unwanted access issues that Apple now characterizes as theft. While this may sound a bit like a "the door was unlocked, so it wasn't really stealing!" defense, this argument is meant to strengthen OpenAI's argument that former Apple employees were simply trying to assist their prior colleagues. It could also help push the narrative that these weren't truly trade secrets if they weren't secured as such. OpenAI argues Apple hasn't specified which "trade secrets" or confidential components were allegedly stolen, referring to them instead as "generic categories of the product-development process -- such as component manufacturing, product testing, vendor and supplier relationships, and distribution channels." OpenAI's filing posits that Apple is using this lawsuit to slow down its competitor from innovating in AI-powered hardware, rather than focusing on its own product plans. "OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets," the motion argues. "OpenAI is building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple. OpenAI does have an interest in hiring the best engineers, inventors, developers and creators -- many of whom have decided to leave Apple and to come to OpenAI, attracted by the innovative and exciting work the company is doing. Apple might not like that," it reads. "...Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," the motion says.

Apple says more ex-employees may have taken confidential data to OpenAI

Apple is now seeking a preliminary injunction in its trade secrets case against OpenAI, which aims to stop the AI model maker from moving forward with developing an AI device or other products based on Apple's technology. The iPhone maker also claims that more of its former employees may be involved with the trade secrets theft. In a new filing, Apple is requesting expedited discovery from the accused OpenAI employees, senior systems engineer Chang Liu and Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan; OpenAI, and its foundation; and io, the device startup co-founded by Apple's former lead designer Jony Ive. Apple also notes that its continued investigation has so far revealed 11 other former Apple employees beyond Liu and Tan may have been witnesses or otherwise involved in the case, and others who were previously named in the original complaint, like OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng. The filing marks an escalation in Apple's legal battle with OpenAI, as it suggests Apple has uncovered new evidence that the misconduct goes beyond the former employees named in the original complaint. "For example, another former Apple employee seems to have met with Mr. Liu and Ms. Peng in advance of Ms. Peng's interview at OpenAI and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products," the filing states. "Yet another former Apple employee took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before an interview at OpenAI." "And, after Apple filed its complaint, multiple former Apple employees now working at OpenAI reached out to discuss returning Apple-issued work devices they kept when they left Apple," Apple claims, suggesting there were more who were possibly involved with the scheme. Apple is pushing the court to allow for expedited discovery because it believes it has good cause to suspect that there are others involved in the theft of its intellectual property. The company noted that its motion for a preliminary injunction is also pending. OpenAI responded publicly to Apple's latest, saying in a blog post that Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is "both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets." "We're much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier," OpenAI's statement reads. The AI model maker also pointed to earlier mistakes Apple made, which had been reported, including that Apple emailed the wrong person when it first made contact with OpenAI after confusing two similar surnames. OpenAI also alleges that Apple lied about discussing matters with its general counsel. And, the company said that Apple didn't admit to the claim that the "residual access" allowing former employees to access Apple's system was the result of poor security procedures on Apple's part.

OpenAI Hits Back at Apple, Calls Lawsuit 'Careless, Aggressive and Oddly Personal' - CNET

Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators.... Read full bio Three weeks after Apple filed a landmark case accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets, OpenAI is hitting back. In a new blog post, the ChatGPT-maker said Apple's lawsuit is "careless, aggressive and oddly personal." Apple alleged in its initial complaint that two former Apple employees, software engineer Chang Liu and 24-year Apple veteran Tang Tan, improperly accessed Apple's proprietary tech after they left for OpenAI. But OpenAI claims that Apple's own security lapses allowed Tan and Liu to access Apple's systems, and that this was a previously known issue. This all comes as Apple asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California this week to speed up the case and order OpenAI to "collect and return" all Apple info it has. The case could have big ramifications for OpenAI, which is gearing up to launch its first AI hardware device. OpenAI is arguing that because the initial filing was based on false claims, the case shouldn't continue. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) To aid its point, OpenAI released some selected text and email exchanges between the two companies and their lawyers. These, combined with the documents filed with a California federal court on Tuesday, paint a picture of two heavily lawyered companies: one that can't figure out how to use its email, and another that is aggressively defensive. The text and email exchanges OpenAI released are heavily redacted. But the messages seem to support OpenAI's claim that Apple made mistakes in the lead-up to filing its lawsuit. Apple's outside counsel leading the case, Gabriel Gross, seemed to have emailed the wrong person at OpenAI in February about Apple's concerns. Che Chang, OpenAI's general counsel, emailed Apple's in-house lawyers, saying Gross claims to represent Apple and says Gross had spoken with Chang, despite the fact that Chang has never heard of him. "I don't know what the point of [Gross's] lie is, but could you please confirm if he is actually representing you, and if so, whether you have other counsel you can use. I don't think interacting through him is appropriate given this behavior," Che emailed Apple's in-house lawyers on Feb. 23, according to an email OpenAI released. Apple's lawyers confirmed Gross is representing the iPhone-maker and that Gross initially contacted the wrong person at OpenAI. (Chang's email is not included in court filings, but Gross's emails straightening out the miscommunication are.) OpenAI also released what it says are text messages between Liu and Apple employees after he left Apple. The messages show Liu's correspondence with an unknown Apple employee on his last day at Apple, arranging file transfers. The texts continue after that day, addressing file transfer issues and seeking Liu's advice on redacted Apple projects despite Liu no longer working there. OpenAI says that Apple's "residual access" issues let Tan, Liu and other former Apple employees improperly access company files. "Of course, I could ask several folks, but you are the best. Even if you don't work here anymore," an unknown Apple employee texted Liu on Jan. 27, five days after Liu left Apple for OpenAI. Apple said in its request for a preliminary injunction, filed Monday night, that "these interactions and exchanges cannot explain the repeated, unauthorized downloading of voluminous technical files from Apple's cloud-based storage discussed below, which Mr. Liu performed on multiple occasions from February to April 2026 while employed by OpenAI." Apple also referred to Liu's text messages, which it included in its preliminary injunction filing, where Liu said he found a way to access the company's third-party cloud storage system without authorization, to which he said: "LOL." Apple claims he coached other Apple-to-OpenAI job hoppers on how to access Apple files in that way "to avoid trouble with the security team," the filing says. It'll be up to the court to sort out which multibillion-dollar tech company is telling the truth. OpenAI certainly has a strong motive to prove Apple wrong - the lawsuit could do a lot of damage, financially and reputationally. OpenAI has now made its position clear: "We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets."

OpenAI says Apple's trade secrets lawsuit is 'rotten to its core'

OpenAI has asked a federal judge to toss out Apple's landmark lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets, describing the allegations as "meritless." In a motion filed yesterday to dismiss the complaint, OpenAI says that Apple is mischaracterizing both the actions of the AI startup's employees as theft, and "generic" product development information as "trade secrets," adding that Apple made no reasonable efforts to maintain such secrecy. The dismissal request is in response to a lawsuit filed by Apple in July, alleging that former Apple employees that went on to work for OpenAI stole confidential documents to further OpenAI's hardware development plans. OpenAI's official legal rebuttal follows a blog post it published on Tuesday titled "Apple is getting this wrong," in which it described the lawsuit as "careless, aggressive, and oddly personal." Several aspects of that blog make a more formal appearance in OpenAI's dismissal request, alleging that Apple's case is poorly investigated, built on selective or out-of-context communications, and "rotten to its core." For example, OpenAI claims that Chang Liu -- a former Apple staffer now working for OpenAI who stands accused of downloading confidential files from Apple after leaving the company -- was simply assisting ex-colleagues who asked him for help. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," OpenAI says in the dismissal filing. "OpenAI is building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple. OpenAI does have an interest in hiring the best engineers, inventors, developers and creators -- many of whom have decided to leave Apple and to come to OpenAI, attracted by the innovative and exciting work the company is doing." The judge is set to hear arguments on the motion on October 1st. Meanwhile, Apple also asked for a preliminary injunction on Monday to prevent OpenAI and the employees named in the complaint from accessing, acquiring, using, or disclosing alleged confidential information while the lawsuit moves ahead.

Apple is taking OpenAI to court over alleged theft of trade secrets -- ChatGPT maker suggests it doesn't want Cupertino's knowledge anyway

Apple and OpenAI are heading to court in a clash of two of the world's largest and most well-funded companies. With teams of lawyers and bottomless pockets to fund them, these two industry titans are squaring off over claims of theft of trade secrets. Apple is asking the courts to block its former employees from revealing information to their new employer and limit OpenAI's development of an AI device based on Apple technology. Unsurprisingly, OpenAI denies any wrongdoing and is asking the judge not to disrupt its business activities. "Apple's getting this wrong" is the name of the blog post OpenAI posted in response to Apple's lawsuit. Although it begins by calling Apple one of the greatest companies of all time, it goes on to call the legal action "sad," suggests Apple mixed up Asian employee names, and doesn't want its trade secrets anyway. OpenAI went on to publish text message chains and email correspondence, suggesting it's keen to be tried in the court of public opinion more than any other setting. Hey, that's mine! Apple alleges that as many as 13 of its former employees may have passed along sensitive trade secrets to OpenAI, including sharing details of unannounced products and sharing screenshots of confidential Apple documents. This is an expansion of its original claims from July, when it alleged two former employees may have shared confidential information with OpenAI. It has now filed a concurrent motion seeking expedited discovery, demanded that two former employees, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, sit for depositions, as well as key OpenAI employees and representatives of OpenAI's hardware division, io Products. Apple is also asking for a preliminary injunction, which would bar former employees from accessing, acquiring, or disclosing any confidential information about the company as the case proceeds. Considering a case of this magnitude, between two companies with effectively infinite money to spend protecting themselves, that could take months or years to resolve, that preliminary injunction is key and could mean the lawsuit does enough damage to be effective for Apple's goals. Regardless, OpenAI is in full revolt over the process and has posted not only a damning denial of all claims, but some evidence it feels exonerates its position, too. Getting ahead of the competition The cynical argument for this lawsuit is that it means the two companies are battling it out in a courtroom instead of in the consumer retail space. Apple is first and foremost a consumer device company, and to date, OpenAI hasn't competed there. But it's planning to, and its various hires from Apple and elsewhere, including buying up Jony Ive's hardware company, suggest it's going to release something with the kind of smart consumer focus that is typically Apple's bread and butter. Apple might have been a little late to the AI game, but that's played to its advantage. But if OpenAI were to use its strong mindshare, deep pockets, and advanced AI model design and inferencing compute base to offer something targeting mainstream consumers, it's stepping on Apple's toes. This lawsuit could be a way to stop that in its tracks. That's not to say the lawsuit may not have merit. The entire AI industry has used aggressively expensive hiring practices to try to get ahead. Meta spent $15 billion on getting Alexandr Wang and ScaleAI's data, and AI companies are reportedly hounding promising students years ahead of graduation to lock them into future contracts. If you're building a smart consumer device, though? Grabbing ex- or even current Apple employees wouldn't be a bad way to do it. Especially if they brought along information on unannounced Apple products that may or may not be related to an AI consumer device. First to market matters, too. Although Apple hasn't shown any AI-first standalone devices yet, if it were planning to, slowing OpenAI down with these injunctions might be enough to let it catch up or even get ahead. Clock's ticking For now, the lawsuit is very much he-said, she-said. Both companies have enough money and resources to make this fight messy, but what they don't necessarily have is time. Especially OpenAI. It's on the hook for hundreds of billions in compute investment, has just cut the price of some of its models, and has yet to post anything close to a profitable quarter. Apple isn't quite so constrained, but is also seeing its traditional consumer base eaten by rapidly appreciating electronics costs. Apple already sells its products at a premium. But what can it do if prices for components push its products out of the luxury affordable into the truly unaffordable? That may not happen, but it's a future it has to consider as AI, and the money spent on its promised future continues to have an outsized impact on global economies. The outcome of this lawsuit is likely to leave a mark, too.

OpenAI: Here's What Apple's Trade Secret Theft Lawsuit Gets Wrong

OpenAI is responding to an Apple lawsuit that accuses it of trade secret theft by taking the legal battle to the court of public opinion. "Apple is getting this wrong," OpenAI says in a blog post. "This careless, aggressive, and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to [Apple's] reputation." Apple claims that two former employees, Tang Yew Tan and Chang Liu, conspired to steal Apple's trade secrets when jumping ship to build hardware products for OpenAI. Liu allegedly exploited a bug to access Apple's shared network folders and failed to return a corporate laptop. However, OpenAI claims the lawsuit omits important information. "Apple accuses Chang Liu of accessing Apple confidential information after leaving the company, but only now admits that Apple employees reached out to him and asked for his help to locate this information," it says. It links to a copy of iMessages that Liu sent to Apple employees on his last day and after leaving the company. "Hey [Apple Employee #1] hope everything is fine for copy pasting. You can keep my icloud connected if you still need more time," Liu writes at one point. But to the unnamed Apple employee, Liu also writes: "I can always give you some fun side projects," seemingly referring to OpenAI. In March, one Apple employee also writes: "Hi, this is highly irregular, please remove me from this thread." OpenAI adds that "Apple also accuses Tang Tan of trying to get and use their trade secrets. However, Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies." In addition, the blog post notes that an Apple lawyer accidentally emailed the wrong person at OpenAI while raising trade secret theft concerns. "Apple also claimed they had a discussion with our General Counsel, which they now concede never happened," OpenAI says. "But they again hide the fact that they never raised the specific allegations in this lawsuit at that time, and that they in fact told us that they were 'resolving any issues.' We then heard nothing for five months until they sued. In their latest filing, Apple tries hard to spin this sequence of events, but you can just read the emails for yourself here⁠," which links to the email exchange. Still, the legal battle is bound to get uglier and potentially expose more details about Liu and Chang's activities. On Monday, Apple filed for a preliminary injunction to stop OpenAI from using any of Apple's intellectual property. In the complaint, Apple claims that other former employees who joined OpenAI may also have engaged in trade secret theft. "These now-OpenAI employees appear to have witnessed events in question and to have used, acquired, or retained still more proprietary Apple information after their own departures from Apple. These former Apple employees include eleven individuals other than Messrs. Liu and Tan and [Yu-Ting] Peng," the company wrote. The court document also claims that in private talks, OpenAI initially agreed to halt any use of Apple's intellectual property, but refused to "permit Apple's counsel and third-party forensic analysts to inspect, image, and analyze all devices, storage drives, and accounts in OpenAI's possession [or] custody" or view OpenAI's internal network. This morning, Apple filed for an "expedited discovery" to force Liu and Chang to give a deposition "regarding their access, acquisition, use, and disclosure of Apple's trade secrets." Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

OpenAI says Apple's trade secrets lawsuit aims to stop employees leaving

OpenAI has accused Apple of trying to stem an employee exodus to the ChatGPT maker with a "baseless and pretextual" trade secrets lawsuit and has asked a US court to dismiss the landmark case. It marks OpenAI's first legal rebuttal of Apple's claims that the start-up used former and current Apple employees to steal information about its secret hardware projects, as OpenAI prepares to launch its own AI device. By suing, Apple is trying to "make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products", OpenAI claimed in a filing to a federal court in California on Wednesday. "But California law and policy not only permit but encourage such employee mobility, which has been credited with powering the tech revolution that has made companies based in this state the envy of the world," it said. The case offers rare insight into how the relationship between the world's second-most valuable listed company and Sam Altman's $852bn AI model developer has unravelled. OpenAI argued that Apple failed to identify specific confidential information that was allegedly stolen and mischaracterised its own deficient "offboarding" procedures, which led to bungled communications with employees who had already left. Apple also wrongly asserted that information regarding its suppliers was proprietary rather than information that could be legally or publicly obtained, said OpenAI. The ChatGPT maker acquired io Products, the studio founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, for $6.4bn last year. Along with peers such as Meta, it has aggressively hired from Apple over the past two years as the iPhone maker faces delays in launching its own AI products. Ive is not named as a defendant in the case. "Since io Products' founding, hundreds of Apple designers and engineers have chosen to leave their jobs at Apple to join OpenAI's effort to design a new family of devices for the AI era," said OpenAI in its filing. The company is planning a palm-sized AI gadget without a screen that takes audio and visual cues from the environment, the FT previously reported. Apple's lawsuit in July came barely two years after the companies partnered to bring new AI features based on ChatGPT to Apple devices. The iPhone maker later partnered with Google in January, using its Gemini models to power "Siri AI" -- seen as a snub to OpenAI, though ChatGPT integration still exists on Apple devices. Two current OpenAI employees formerly at Apple, including its hardware chief Tang Tan, were named in the lawsuit. Apple has since targeted dozens of its former employees now working at OpenAI with legal letters. Apple claimed Tan used job interviews with Apple employees to grill them over secret Apple projects and urged them to bring the company's prototypes to interviews. OpenAI's filing on Wednesday argued that Apple failed to identify any specific confidential information gleaned from the company "as opposed to the sort of background any employer might ask about in an interview", such as their experience with Apple parts or components that are already widely available. Apple had also alleged that electrical engineer Chang Liu pulled secret files from the company before and after he joined OpenAI. OpenAI argued this was "requested and authorised by Apple itself" as Apple had asked Liu to retrieve important information from his account after he was "hastily walked . . . out of the door" when he announced his resignation. OpenAI added that Apple encouraged its employees to use their personal iCloud accounts for work, "intermingling company and personal data, while failing to manage access cleanly across multiple Apple systems when employees departed". Earlier this week Apple asked the California judge in the case to issue an injunction against OpenAI to stop it from using its allegedly stolen trade secrets and to preserve evidence. A hearing is currently scheduled for October. The judge, Edward Davila, also presided over the high-profile criminal trial of former Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes and business partner Sunny Balwani in 2021 and 2022. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple seeks preliminary injunction against OpenAI in trade secrets case

Aug 3 (Reuters) - Apple on Monday asked a U.S. judge for a preliminary injunction barring two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, acquiring, using or disclosing alleged confidential information as it moves ahead with its trade secrets case. Apple last month sued OpenAI and the two former employees, both now working for OpenAI, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT-owner's foray into consumer hardware, a dramatic escalation of already simmering tension between the two companies. The iPhone maker also filed a concurrent motion on Monday seeking expedited discovery, including production of documents ⁠relating to the defendants' alleged access of Apple's proprietary and trade secret information. It asked the judge to order the two former Apple employees named in the lawsuit, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, to sit for depositions, along with OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng and an unnamed OpenAI employee who previously worked at Apple. Liu is a former Apple senior system electrical engineer while Tan is Apple's former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple also sought depositions from corporate representatives of OpenAI and io ⁠Products, which is OpenAI's commercial arm and is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. "Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction," it said in a filing. "Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not ⁠have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," OpenAI said in a blogpost late on Monday. Apple's lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, comes after OpenAI ⁠successfully fended off a legal challenge from Elon Musk's xAI. The lawsuit sets up a battle over the control of future AI devices that may not use traditional apps or operating ⁠systems -- devices which, if successful, would direct consumer attention away from Apple's best-selling iPhone. Analysts believe OpenAI is working on a phone or other device of its own. Reporting by Sumedha Mukherjee and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Kate Mayberry Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

'Apple is getting this wrong,' says OpenAI -- startup blasts iPhone maker over lawsuit alleging it stole confidential information through ex-Apple employees

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in July, alleging that the latter stole trade secrets through former Apple employees. The startup has finally publicly responded to the lawsuit today, posting a blog post on its website titled, "Apple is getting this wrong." "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details. This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation," the company said in its blog post. It also added, "Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets." The case names OpenAI technical staff Chang Liu, chief hardware officer Tang Tan, OpenAI, and io Products as defendants. Liu worked as a senior electrical engineer at Apple, while Tan was its former vice president of product design for the iPhone, AirPods, and the Apple Watch. Interestingly, io Products, which was acquired by OpenAI last year, was founded by Tan alongside former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and other former Apple heavyweights. The tech giant requested a preliminary injunction to stop the accused from accessing, acquiring, using, or disclosing the alleged stolen trade secrets. Cupertino said in its filing, "Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction." OpenAI publicly responded to this legal request through its blog post, pointing out that many of its allegations were actually based on miscommunications and false information, and that this move is completely unnecessary. But whether what the AI tech giant claims is true or not, its research and operations on consumer hardware would likely be impaired if the judge grants Apple's request. Although OpenAI's primary product is ChatGPT and its other LLM-powered services, it's been rumored that it's also working on AI-powered hardware. Its first product is expected to be some sort of portable smart speaker with built-in cameras and sensors. Although this isn't an iPhone replacement, like the botched Humane AI Pin, some experts say this move threatens Apple's standing as the biggest consumer electronics company on the planet. This is especially true as it still lags behind other tech giants when it comes to artificial intelligence, even though AI enthusiasts love using Apple silicon with its Unified Memory architecture. Apple's preliminary injunction is just the opening stages of what might be an epic showdown between two tech giants. It will likely take months (or even years) before this case reaches a judgment or a settlement, meaning a preliminary injunction will definitely have a massive impact on OpenAI's hardware dreams. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Apple claims that even more ex-employees may have given trade secrets to OpenAI - Engadget

The company is requesting expedited discovery in an ongoing lawsuit. Apple has claimed that even more former employees may have given trade secrets to OpenAI, according to a report by TechCrunch. The company is seeking a preliminary injunction in its case against OpenAI, which would stop the AI company from moving forward with the development of any devices that are suspected of being based on Apple's technology. Apple is requesting expedited discovery to get to the bottom of things, according to a recent court filing. The company had already accused Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former VP, of sharing trade secrets with OpenAI. Now, Apple claims that an internal investigation has revealed 11 other former employees that may have been witness to or directly involved with the suspected shenanigans. This, along with the request for expedited discovery, seems to suggest that the company has new evidence pointing to misconduct. Apple says another former employee met with Chang Liu ahead of an interview at OpenAI "and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products." The filing also states that "yet another former Apple employee took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple Product before an interview at OpenAI." The iPhone maker also said in the filing that "multiple former Apple employees now working at OpenAI reached out to discuss returning Apple-issued work devices they kept when they left Apple." Yesterday, prior to this latest filing, OpenAI wrote that that Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is "both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets." It published text messages involving Chang Liu that seem to suggest that Apple employees contacted him after he left the company, asking for the location of certain files. OpenAI said this is an example of Apple "failing to properly manage system access when people leave." The company has yet to respond to Apple's latest volley, which includes the request for expedited discovery. Rumors have been swirling that OpenAI is working on some kind of AI-enabled smart speaker along with former Apple design luminary Jony Ives. The company recently purchased his startup, io Products, for $6.5 billion. That entity has been named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit.

OpenAI Says Apple's Real Problem Is Being Bad at AI, Not Stolen Secrets

The legal battle between OpenAI and Apple just got (even more) personal. In response to a bombshell lawsuit accusing the startup's employees of stealing Apple's trade secrets, OpenAI called the case "meritless" and requested that it be tossed out by a federal judge. The response also suggested that Apple's accusations were motivated in part by jealousy of OpenAI's success. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," OpenAI's legal team wrote in its 28-page response to the lawsuit. The lawsuit accuses two former Apple employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan, of illegally using their insider knowledge of the company's trade secrets to help OpenAI -- which hired Liu and Tan earlier this year and last summer, respectively -- build its fledgling hardware business. OpenAI published a blog post on Tuesday dismissing Apple's claims, along with excerpts of iMessage conversations between Liu and his former Apple colleagues and email threads between the two companies' lawyers. The post admonished Apple in a finger-wagging tone, describing it as a company known for its "reputation for obsessing over the smallest details," which it says the lawsuit "sadly" fails to live up to. OpenAI's official response to the lawsuit elaborates on some of the core arguments made in the blog post. Liu, it says, was merely trying to help former colleagues, after they first allegedly contacted him, find information they were struggling to locate after he left the company in January; and as for Apple's claim that Tan encouraged departing Apple employees to disclose trade secrets during interviews with OpenAI, this was nothing more than "routine recruitment and hardware-development activity," according to OpenAI's lawyers. Apple also failed to identify a specific trade secret that was allegedly shared with Tan, OpenAI's filing says, undermining the lawsuit's claim that he violated the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). Apple is widely viewed as a late bloomer in the AI race, one of the few major tech giants that did not quickly make the technology a priority following the explosion of ChatGPT onto the cultural scene in late 2022. That's been perceived by some as a strategic error, by others as wise patience given the ongoing volatility and uncertain future of the AI market. The company hasn't completely sat on the sidelines, though. It announced a partnership with OpenAI in June of 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and other on-device services. But the relationship between the two companies has turned bitter since then, in part due to OpenAI building its own hardware business, which led to last year's acquisition of IO, a company founded by former Apple executive and iPhone designer Jony Ive. Tan was another IO cofounder. The battle for top talent has therefore been a factor leading to the bad blood between the two tech giants, as well as the source of much animosity throughout the tech industry more generally in recent years. Legions of software engineers and other employees have departed old-guard tech giants to join the ranks of young AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, where they've been greeted with starting salaries that are massive even by Silicon Valley standards. Over 400 former Apple employees have been hired by OpenAI, according to Apple's lawsuit.

OpenAI wants Apple's trade-secrets case thrown out

In a combative motion, OpenAI argues that Apple's own loose data policies, not any theft, explain how information travelled with the hundreds of staff who left for it. OpenAI is not interested in a quiet settlement with Apple. The company has asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple's trade-secrets lawsuit outright, in a filing that turns the accusation back on its accuser. The case has been building for weeks. Apple sued OpenAI for stealing trade secrets, alleging that former employees carried confidential material with them and that OpenAI fished for more during recruiting interviews. Also, more than 400 former Apple staff have joined OpenAI, a migration that has fed Apple's suspicion as both companies race to build AI-powered hardware. OpenAI's 31-page motion is unusually pointed. It casts the suit as pretextual, arguing that Apple is using litigation to compensate for its own stumbles in artificial intelligence rather than to remedy any real theft. Its central argument is about Apple's own systems; OpenAI says Apple encouraged staff to use personal iCloud accounts for work and reviewed personal iMessages on company devices, blurring the line between corporate and personal data. If information was commingled by Apple's design, OpenAI argues, then material leaving with departing employees is a foreseeable result of Apple's policies, not evidence that anyone stole anything. "Apple cannot transform the foreseeable consequences of its own systems and policies into evidence of theft," OpenAI wrote, a line designed to reframe the entire dispute. OpenAI has taken the fight public too. It published a blog post headed "Apple is getting this wrong," insisting it never sought Apple's secrets and accusing Apple of presenting a misleading timeline of events. It has also gone on the offensive with evidence. OpenAI pointed to its own chats and emails to rebut the claim, and needled Apple by noting how often the word "fail" appears in its filing, a jab at Apple's AI record. The bad blood has history. The two were once partners, with ChatGPT wired into Siri, before that relationship curdled into a legal fight, turning collaborators into courtroom adversaries. The talent war gives the case its heat. OpenAI has hired aggressively across the industry, and the flow of Apple engineers into its ranks is the raw material for Apple's suspicion that knowledge, not just people, walked out the door. Apple, for its part, is pressing harder. It has asked the court for a preliminary injunction to stop OpenAI from using any of the disputed information while the case proceeds, a sign it wants leverage now rather than later. The stakes reach beyond this one suit. The lawsuit is already complicating OpenAI's hardware ambitions and its march toward a public listing, casting a legal shadow over a company trying to project momentum. OpenAI is fighting on more than one front. It recently sought to recover its legal fees from Elon Musk's xAI in a separate trade-secrets clash, part of a pattern of aggressive courtroom posturing. That other case offers OpenAI some encouragement. A judge recently threw out xAI's trade-secrets claim against it, a precedent OpenAI will be keen to invoke as it argues Apple's case is just as thin. Whatever the judge decides, the dispute is unlikely to end quickly. Legal experts expect years of wrangling, with discovery threatening to expose sensitive hiring and security practices at both companies. The deeper contest is over people. In a field where talent is the scarcest resource, the fight is really about whether a rival can hire away hundreds of your engineers and call it competition rather than theft.

OpenAI hits back at Apple over 'oddly personal' trade secrets fight

Legal clash deepens after an AI partnership over devices gives way to acrimony OpenAI has accused Apple of waging a "careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit" in a blog post rebutting the iPhone maker's claims that the AI start-up stole top-secret information. "We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," the ChatGPT maker wrote on Monday evening, accusing Apple of "making vague accusations" and "trying to change their narrative". The post marks the latest escalation in a dispute that began last month when Apple filed a lawsuit claiming OpenAI had stolen hardware designs as it planned to launch its own AI-focused consumer devices. The dispute comes as the two companies encroach on each other's territory, with OpenAI venturing into consumer products and Apple joining forces with Google to revamp its Siri voice assistant. OpenAI and Apple had previously partnered to integrate AI technology into Apple's products. But the relationship began to sour after OpenAI last year acquired io, the design studio founded by former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive, and hired a string of Apple employees. Apple alleged in its lawsuit that more than 400 of its former employees now worked at OpenAI. It said it had received no response from OpenAI in February after contacting the start-up to warn it of an internal investigation into the potential theft of Apple's trade secrets. OpenAI said Apple's lawyers had "emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names" and "claimed they had a discussion with our General Counsel, which they now concede never happened". The start-up said Apple "never raised the specific allegations in this lawsuit at that time" and "in fact told us that they were 'resolving any issues'. We then heard nothing for five months until they sued." Apple alleged in its lawsuit that Chang Liu, a former employee who worked on some of its "most sensitive product development programs", accessed Apple's trade secrets after leaving the company in January. However OpenAI said Apple employees had themselves contacted Liu "and asked for his help to locate this information", something the iPhone maker "only now admits". Apple also named in its lawsuit a second former employee, OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Tan, whom it accused of seeking out proprietary information when interviewing Apple's employees. "Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies," wrote OpenAI. Apple on Monday sought a preliminary injunction in the US to prevent former employees and OpenAI from accessing, using or disclosing its trade secrets. It also filed a second motion asking the court to expedite discovery and order several OpenAI employees, including Liu and Tan, to sit for depositions. OpenAI said Apple's request for a preliminary injunction was "both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets". "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details. This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation," the ChatGPT maker wrote. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI Asks Judge to Dismiss Apple's Trade Secrets Lawsuit

OpenAI has asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple's lawsuit accusing the AI company of stealing trade secrets, calling the allegations "meritless." Lawyers for OpenAI said Apple's suit twists the actions of its employees. Bloomberg reports that the filing defends Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple as VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch before leaving to co-found io Products with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. io merged with OpenAI in July 2025. OpenAI said Tan followed normal industry recruiting practices when interviewing Apple staff. OpenAI also defended senior systems engineer Chang Liu, one of two former Apple employees named in the suit. Apple claims Liu accessed confidential hardware files over several weeks after finding an authentication bug. OpenAI said Liu was simply helping a former Apple colleague find information for their own work, and published excerpts of text messages it says back up that account. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit," OpenAI's lawyers wrote. OpenAI's motion argues Apple never properly identified what information actually counts as a protectable trade secret. The company said it has no interest in Apple's confidential material because it is "building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple." Axios reported that OpenAI's filing also disputes how Apple built its case. According to OpenAI, Apple's own security practices, including letting staff use personal iCloud accounts for work and later reviewing personal messages left on company devices, are what gave former employees leftover system access in the first place, not evidence of a coordinated theft. The 31 page filing repeatedly frames the case as Apple trying to cover for its own struggles, with variations of the word "fail" appearing nearly 50 times. OpenAI's filing also revisited an earlier dispute over how the two sides first fell out of contact. Apple's suit had claimed OpenAI never responded to its outreach in February, and that the two sides discussed the matter with OpenAI's general counsel. OpenAI says neither is true, and that the breakdown traced back to Apple's own outside counsel confusing two OpenAI employees with similar surnames and sending a message to the wrong person. This week's motion follows the suit Apple filed against OpenAI in July, which accuses the company of running a scheme to pull confidential product information out of job candidates and new hires. Apple and OpenAI had spent about two years partnering to build ChatGPT integration into Siri, but the relationship soured as OpenAI moved into hardware, a shift accelerated by its acquisition of Ive's startup. Apple's suit claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. Apple escalated the case further this week, asking the same judge for a preliminary injunction to stop OpenAI from using any alleged trade secrets while the case continues, along with expedited discovery targeting Liu, Tan, OpenAI and its foundation, and io. Apple said its investigation has since turned up 11 more former employees who may have been witnesses or otherwise involved, beyond Liu, Tan, and previously named OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng. Apple claims one former employee met with Liu and Peng before Peng's OpenAI interview and discussed proprietary information about unannounced products, and that another took screenshots of confidential documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before their own interview. Apple also said that after it filed its complaint, several former staffers now at OpenAI reached out about returning Apple issued devices they had kept. OpenAI called that injunction request "based on false information and completely unnecessary" in a public blog post responding to Apple's filing. OpenAI has a court ordered deadline of August 17 to formally respond to Apple's preliminary injunction request. The judge is set to hear arguments on October 1.

OpenAI Is Trying to Shame Apple Into Backing Down From Its Lawsuit

The tech industry reeled last month when Apple sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing trade secrets as the startup builds its nascent AI hardware business. In a blog post published late Tuesday night, OpenAI dismissed the lawsuit as a baseless witch hunt -- and said it has the evidence to prove it. The post, titled "Apple is getting this wrong," has the tone of a pupil disappointed with a once-beloved mentor who's lost their way. "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details," the post reads. "This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation." The lawsuit accuses Chang Liu, a former Apple staff member who left the company in January to join OpenAI, of using a former colleague's company-owned laptop to download technical documents, among other infractions. OpenAI is trying to undercut that claim with a series of screenshots published in its new blog post. They're somewhat difficult to parse, as they've been heavily redacted (cutting out both the names of Apple employees included in the conversation as well as other legally sensitive details). But the messages appear to show Liu walking his former colleagues through accessibility issues in Apple's internal systems. According to OpenAI, Liu did nothing wrong here, and the blame should instead fall on Apple for "failing to properly manage system access when people leave." Apple has also accused one of its former executives, Tang Tan, who joined OpenAI as part of that company's $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive's hardware company IO last year, of helping departing Apple employees bypass the company's security protocol. Reuters reported Tuesday that Apple had requested a preliminary injunction against Liu, Tan, and OpenAI, which, if granted, would prevent the defendants from publicly disclosing confidential information as the case proceeds. It's unclear if redacted employee messages of the sort OpenAI published in its blog post would fall into that category. In any case, OpenAI wrote in its blog post that Apple's request for a preliminary injunction "is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets." OpenAI's new blog post also added a strange twist to the circumstances in which the legal complaint first surfaced. According to the lawsuit, Apple first reached out to OpenAI in February to discuss concerns that company IP was being "improperly" used by former employees now working for the ChatGPT maker. OpenAI didn't respond, the company reportedly claimed in the lawsuit. OpenAI's rebuttal paints a different picture. In another series of screenshots, a third-party attorney representing Apple named Gabriel Gross is shown emailing OpenAI general counsel Che Cheng with a request to discuss "former Apple employees at OpenAI retaining non-public, confidential, and proprietary information," as it was described in the email's subject line, according to one of the screenshots. The next day (February 24), Gross emails Cheng again, apologizing for having apparently mistaken him for another OpenAI employee with the last name of Wang, whom Gross described as "one of the former Apple employees at issue." OpenAI was quick to call out this embarrassing slip-up in its blog post. "Apple had claimed that they contacted OpenAI in February and that we didn't respond. They now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names -- only after we brought this to their attention." A short collection of heavily redacted text and email conversations published in a company blog post is not, of course, anything close to a legal finishing move. There's every reason to believe this will be a long and drawn-out battle between two of the biggest tech companies in the world, potentially with real stakes for the future of OpenAI's hardware ambitions.

OpenAI moves to dismiss Apple's trade secret lawsuit

Why it matters: The motion is an early step in a legal fight that could stretch for years. If the case survives, discovery could expose sensitive details about both companies' hiring, hardware development and data-security practices. What's inside: OpenAI's motion bristles with digs at Apple, portraying the lawsuit as an effort to compensate for the iPhone maker's struggles to retain talent and keep pace in AI. * "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," the motion says. * Variations of the word "fail" appear nearly 50 times in the 31-page filing. Zoom in: Apple's original lawsuit alleges that former employees took confidential information and that OpenAI sought Apple trade secrets through recruiting interviews. * OpenAI's motion counters that Apple reviewed personal iMessages left on company devices and created confusion by encouraging employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work, intermingling corporate and personal data. * "Apple cannot transform the foreseeable consequences of its own systems and policies into evidence of theft by former employees who were ... not aware of their latent access." The other side: Apple on Monday asked the judge for a preliminary injunction that would prevent OpenAI from using the alleged trade secrets while the case proceeds. * OpenAI responded in a blog post titled "Apple is getting this wrong," claiming that it never sought Apple's trade secrets and that Apple presented a misleading timeline. The big picture: Apple alleges that more than 400 of its former employees have joined OpenAI, giving the case the feel of a broader war over talent as the two companies compete to build AI hardware.

OpenAI takes Apple lawsuit to court of public opinion, posts texts

In July, Apple filed a blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, accusing the company of hiring former Apple employees and improperly gaining confidential information. Now, OpenAI is striking back against Apple, but not just in court. On Aug. 3, OpenAI posted a public blog post denying many of Apple's claims. The post also includes recreations of texts and copies of emails that OpenAI says directly contradict some of the facts presented in the lawsuit. In effect, OpenAI is moving this fight into the court of public opinion -- and bringing receipts. As a result, this complex legal drama is now playing out in the open, giving the public an inside look at how lawsuits like this are handled behind the scenes. Our big Guessing Game is back! Enter now for a chance to win an Apple Watch. OpenAI's blog post, "Apple is getting this wrong," contains some not-so-subtle digs at Apple's legal counsel, which OpenAI says initially contacted the wrong person at OpenAI and misrepresented their conversations in legal filings. Apple had claimed that they contacted OpenAI in February and that we didn't respond. They now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names -- only after we brought this to their attention. Apple also claimed they had a discussion with our General Counsel, which they now concede never happened. But they again hide the fact that they never raised the specific allegations in this lawsuit at that time, and that they in fact told us that they were "resolving any issues. That email is included in Apple's legal filings. Now, OpenAI has posted a back-and-forth with Apple's outside legal counsel, detailing the confusion. The blog post also states, somewhat passive-aggressively, "We wish Apple had raised these issues with us before they filed their lawsuit and would have been happy to clarify all of this with them. We have taken the allegations in the lawsuit seriously and offered to work with Apple to resolve this. Instead, they're trying to change their narrative, including by making vague accusations about other former employees, and will likely keep repeating this tactic." The background on Apple Inc. v. Liu Apple filed its lawsuit, Apple Inc. v. Liu, on July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple's lawsuit named both OpenAI's commercial and nonprofit entities, as well as its hardware company io Products, former iPhone engineer, Chang Liu, and OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan, who worked at Apple for 24 years before joining OpenAI. "This case is about Apple's former employees stealing Apple's trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI," Apple said in the complaint. In the ongoing AI arms race, Big Tech companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic have spent tens of billions of dollars poaching talent from each other. Last year, Meta was reportedly offering signing bonuses of up to $100 million. Because employees typically sign ironclad non-disclosure agreements when starting a role, they are forbidden from sharing a company's trade secrets after moving to a rival company. In its lawsuit, Apple accuses OpenAI of conspiring with former Apple employees to benefit from its trade secrets. However, OpenAI denies these claims, and the new blog post includes numerous exchanges between Apple employees and Chang Liu that the AI company says directly contradict Apple's suit. "Apple accuses Chang Liu of accessing Apple confidential information after leaving the company, but only now admits that Apple employees reached out to him and asked for his help to locate this information (you can read the messages here⁠)." It's hard to imagine Apple, a famously tight-lipped company, posting a public blog post about the lawsuit the way OpenAI has. That ability to speak directly to users, and not solely relying on lawyers, could give OpenAI an edge in the battle of public opinion, even if the suit is ultimately decided in court or in a settlement. Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable's parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

OpenAI moves to dismiss Apple trade secrets lawsuit

OpenAI called Apple's complaint "baseless and pretextual," arguing the iPhone maker failed to identify a protectable trade secret or plausibly allege misappropriation OpenAI filed a motion Wednesday seeking dismissal of Apple $AAPL's lawsuit, which charges the AI company and two of its hires from Apple with trade-secret theft and using job interviews to extract confidential information. In the 31-page filing, OpenAI argued that Apple failed to sufficiently describe the information it claims as trade secrets and did not demonstrate it owned a protectable trade secret or plausibly allege misappropriation by any of the defendants. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," the motion says. Variations of the word "fail" appear nearly 50 times in the filing. OpenAI also challenged Apple's account of the underlying facts, contending that Apple itself had reviewed employees' personal iMessages stored on corporate devices and sowed confusion by directing staff to use personal iCloud accounts for work purposes, which mixed private and employer data together. "Apple cannot transform the foreseeable consequences of its own systems and policies into evidence of theft by former employees who were not aware of their latent access," the filing states. OpenAI also contended that it has no need for Apple's trade secrets, citing its quoted assertion in the filing that it is "building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple." Apple's complaint, which was filed last month, accused former employees of walking out with confidential information and alleged that OpenAI used its recruiting process to extract Apple trade secrets from job candidates. The lawsuit named OpenAI, its hardware-focused subsidiary io Products, and two former Apple employees -- Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan and technical staffer Chang Liu -- and claimed that the total number of Apple alumni now working at OpenAI exceeds 400. Earlier this week, Apple asked the same judge for a preliminary injunction that would bar OpenAI from using the alleged trade secrets while the case moves forward. Apple also filed a motion for expedited discovery, seeking depositions of the named defendants and corporate representatives from OpenAI and io Products. OpenAI responded in a blog post calling Apple's injunction request "based on false information and completely unnecessary." The case centers on a broader competition between the two companies to build AI hardware. Analysts believe OpenAI is working on a phone or other device of its own, according to Reuters. The two companies have an existing partnership that allows Apple users to access ChatGPT through Siri, though Apple announced in June that a rebuilt version of Siri would run on Google $GOOGL Gemini instead. Should the case move past the motion to dismiss, the discovery process would likely surface internal information from both companies touching on recruitment, hardware roadmaps, and how each handles data security, according to Axios.

OpenAI fires back at Apple, publishing private emails to counter trade-secret claims | Fortune

OpenAI has come out swinging in its legal battle with Apple -- and brought receipts. The AI lab published a response -- along with a tranche of private emails and messages -- pushing back on some of the claims in Apple's lawsuit filed last month that accused OpenAI, its hardware unit io Products, and two former Apple employees of trade secret theft. Apple had accused the AI lab of carrying out a coordinated effort to take confidential information about unreleased Apple products and processes. The suit includes claims alleging that a former employee who joined OpenAI took advantage of a security bug, that job candidates were encouraged to bring proprietary Apple hardware into interviews, and that OpenAI leadership effectively normalized this conduct. OpenAI's blog post is not a legal response to the suit, but rather an effort to publicly point out flaws in some of Apple's accusations and legal process -- and potentially court public opinion. "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details," OpenAI wrote in the blog. "This careless, aggressive, and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation." In what appears to be two missteps, the company says Apple's outside lawyers emailed the wrong individual after confusing "two Asian last names," and that a purported conversation with OpenAI's general counsel "never happened." OpenAI accused the company of trying to hide the fact that they never raised the specific allegations in this lawsuit at that time. Instead, the lab says that Apple only informed OpenAI that they were "resolving any issues" and did not contact the company any further until they sued. Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment. A spokesperson for OpenAI pointed Fortune to the publicly available blog post. In its lawsuit, Apple alleged that OpenAI benefited from confidential information taken by former Apple engineer Chang Liu and former design executive Tang Tan. OpenAI counters that Apple now concedes its own employees reached out to Liu -- not the other way around -- and published messages it says show Apple staff asking Liu for help locating files and answering technical questions after his January 22 departure. OpenAI also argues that these emails undercut Apple's narrative that the company ignored its concerns, saying they demonstrate that OpenAI responded to Apple's outreach and that any breakdown in communication stemmed from Apple's own outside counsel. The dispute reflects a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the two companies, which have shifted from collaborators to competitors as both push into competing product areas. While Apple has been leaning on Google to integrate more advanced AI into its ecosystem, OpenAI has moved deeper into consumer devices -- particularly after acquiring Jony Ive's design firm io and recruiting several former Apple staff, moves that appear to have heightened tensions. Apple, in a motion for a preliminary injunction filed this week, told the court it is seeking "to stop the theft of its trade secrets" and warned that it has "suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm" without an order blocking OpenAI and the two former employees from using or spreading its confidential information. The company argued that if Apple trade secrets "get embedded in [OpenAI's] products and operations," it could end up competing in the consumer hardware market "against its own trade secret technologies," according to the filing. Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment. A spokesperson for OpenAI pointed Fortune to the publicly available blog post.

Apple and OpenAI escalate legal battle over devices

San Francisco (United States) (AFP) - A legal battle between Apple and OpenAI over the ChatGPT-maker's secretive device project escalated this week when the artificial intelligence (AI) developer called the iPhone-maker's allegations "baseless" and asked for the lawsuit's dismissal. Apple sued OpenAI last month in San Jose, California, accusing the AI company of orchestrating a campaign to steal the iPhone maker's trade secrets via former employees as it tries to develop its own consumer hardware device. In a new court document filed Monday, Apple described OpenAI's actions as "repeated instances of deliberate theft." "OpenAI should not be permitted to use Apple's secrets to gain an unjust head start in its hardware ambitions," the iPhone-maker says. OpenAI hit back on Wednesday and called for the case to be permanently dismissed, which would bar Apple from filing another lawsuit on the same grounds. "Apple built its reputation by paying close attention to the smallest details. This lawsuit does the opposite," OpenAI's lawyers say in their filing, which continues to describe Apple's complaint as "rotten to its core." Federal judge Edward Davila will consider both requests at a hearing on October 1. Partners and rivals Meanwhile, the two companies remain partners, since ChatGPT has been integrated into Apple products since 2024. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," OpenAI's lawyers say. They invoke California laws that "encourage" employees to take new jobs - policies that are "credited with powering the tech revolution that has made companies based in this state the envy of the world." More than 400 former Apple employees currently work at OpenAI, according to the initial complaint. "The harm is happening now," Apple's lawyers say, and "every day that passes without an injunction allows OpenAI to embed their knowledge of Apple's stolen information into its hardware development efforts." - Smart speaker - To convince the judge of the urgency, Apple's lawyers submitted a TechCrunch article describing leaked details about OpenAI's highly anticipated first device: a screenless smart speaker designed in collaboration with LoveFrom, a studio founded by Jony Ive, Apple's famed former head of design. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the device would be circular like a donut, about the size of a hockey puck, and cost between $300 and $400, with a launch planned for 2027. OpenAI has never confirmed these leaks. "OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets," the creator of ChatGPT says in a court document, which continues that Apple hasn't named any specific products, such as an iPhone, that has allegedly been copied. "OpenAI is building something entirely new and different." Apple, for its part, accuses OpenAI's head of hardware Tang Tan, a former vice president of design at Apple, of using his knowledge of unreleased Apple products to extract information from job candidates. OpenAI asked candidates to bring "prototypes" and design files to interviews for "show and tell" sessions, an American classroom exercise where students present objects to their classmates, Apple alleges. In its response, OpenAI says it follows standard industry practices. According to his lawyers, Tan "repeatedly instructed recruits and his team not to bring or disclose former employers' confidential information." OpenAI also defends itself by accusing Apple of failing to properly protect its own data, claiming that the Cupertino company has "encouraged employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work, intermingling company and personal data, while failing to manage access cleanly across multiple Apple systems when employees departed." The case comes at a sensitive time for OpenAI, which is worth a reported $852 billion as it works towards a potential IPO. The lab is also locked into a fierce competition with Anthropic, a rival AI lab in San Francisco that was founded by a group of former OpenAI employees.

OpenAI calls out Apple's 'careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit' in latest blog post

After two former Apple employees started working for OpenAI, the Cupertino-based company alleged that trade secrets went with them and straight to the creator of ChatGPT. After it asked for a preliminary injunction to stop those employees and OpenAI from accessing confidential information, OpenAI publicly announced its defence, and followed that up with a blog post for good measure. Titled "Apple is getting this wrong", OpenAI argues that Apple has built a reputation for obsession over small details, yet "this careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation." It notes that Apple claimed it contacted OpenAI in February, but that contact was actually given to the wrong person, as Apple's lawyers mixed two names up. It also notes that Apple claimed it talked to OpenAI's General Counsel, "which they now concede never happened." The two former employees, named Chang Liu and Tang Tan, are both defended by OpenAI. OpenAI claims that Liu is accused of trying to access confidential information after leaving, though OpenAI shares text messages of Apple employees asking for Liu's help to locate files. OpenAI claims that the problem here is actually Apple failing to properly manage system access when people leave. Apparently no such evidence exists for Tan, but OpenAI claims "Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies." OpenAI claims that the preliminary injunction is "based on false information" and unnecessary, as it doesn't want Apple's trade secrets. The blog post argues, "We wish Apple had raised these issues with us before they filed their lawsuit and would have been happy to clarify all of this with them. We have taken the allegations in the lawsuit seriously and offered to work with Apple to resolve this." It continues, "Instead, they're trying to change their narrative, including by making vague accusations about other former employees, and will likely keep repeating this tactic." Apple is yet to respond to OpenAI's public blog post, but the company is historically less likely to use the same tactic of publicly posting blog posts about ongoing court cases. In regard to Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, the AI company put up two separate blogs recounting its relationship with Elon Musk and Elon Musk's nonprofit claims. Naturally, a blog post like this is intended to garner public support, which can then apply pressure to Apple. Apple will need to come back with a strong response, should it choose to give one publicly.

OpenAI wants to be the underdog against Apple. That won't be easy

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence pioneer, is trying on a new public image: the scrappy underdog David defending itself from Apple's creaky Goliath. It's an understandable strategy, but making that image stick won't be easy. The root of the dispute is OpenAI's plan to develop its own AI-centric devices. Last month Apple sued OpenAI, alleging that it has stolen trade secrets. This has quickly morphed into a battle in the court of public opinion -- and that battle has high-stakes implications for both brands. Most notably, in a snarky blog post this week, OpenAI mocked Apple and its lawyers for a "careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit," sharing texts and email excerpts seeming to show Apple's outside counsel emailing the wrong employee (with a similar, Asian name) and other sloppy-sounding missteps. The subtext isn't (just) dunking on Apple; it's the suggestion that Apple -- legendary innovator and "think different" tastemaker -- has lost a step or two. "We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," OpenAI's post zings. "We're much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier."

Apple and OpenAI escalate legal battle over devices

The case comes at a sensitive time for OpenAI, which is worth a reported $852 billion as it works towards a potential IPO. The lab is also locked into a fierce competition with Anthropic, a rival AI lab in San Francisco that was founded by a group of former OpenAI employees. A legal battle between Apple and OpenAI over the ChatGPT-maker's secretive device project escalated this week when the artificial intelligence (AI) developer called the iPhone-maker's allegations "baseless" and asked for the lawsuit's dismissal. Apple sued OpenAI last month in San Jose, California, accusing the AI company of orchestrating a campaign to steal the iPhone maker's trade secrets via former employees as it tries to develop its own consumer hardware device. In a new court document filed Monday, Apple described OpenAI's actions as "repeated instances of deliberate theft." "OpenAI should not be permitted to use Apple's secrets to gain an unjust head start in its hardware ambitions," the iPhone-maker says. OpenAI hit back on Wednesday and called for the case to be permanently dismissed, which would bar Apple from filing another lawsuit on the same grounds. "Apple built its reputation by paying close attention to the smallest details. This lawsuit does the opposite," OpenAI's lawyers say in their filing, which continues to describe Apple's complaint as "rotten to its core." Federal judge Edward Davila will consider both requests at a hearing on October 1. Partners and rivals Meanwhile, the two companies remain partners, since ChatGPT has been integrated into Apple products since 2024. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," OpenAI's lawyers say. They invoke California laws that "encourage" employees to take new jobs - policies that are "credited with powering the tech revolution that has made companies based in this state the envy of the world." More than 400 former Apple employees currently work at OpenAI, according to the initial complaint. "The harm is happening now," Apple's lawyers say, and "every day that passes without an injunction allows OpenAI to embed their knowledge of Apple's stolen information into its hardware development efforts." Smart speaker To convince the judge of the urgency, Apple's lawyers submitted a TechCrunch article describing leaked details about OpenAI's highly anticipated first device: a screenless smart speaker designed in collaboration with LoveFrom, a studio founded by Jony Ive, Apple's famed former head of design. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the device would be circular like a donut, about the size of a hockey puck, and cost between $300 and $400, with a launch planned for 2027. OpenAI has never confirmed these leaks. "OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets," the creator of ChatGPT says in a court document, which continues that Apple hasn't named any specific products, such as an iPhone, that has allegedly been copied. "OpenAI is building something entirely new and different." Apple, for its part, accuses OpenAI's head of hardware Tang Tan, a former vice president of design at Apple, of using his knowledge of unreleased Apple products to extract information from job candidates. OpenAI asked candidates to bring "prototypes" and design files to interviews for "show and tell" sessions, an American classroom exercise where students present objects to their classmates, Apple alleges. In its response, OpenAI says it follows standard industry practices. According to his lawyers, Tan "repeatedly instructed recruits and his team not to bring or disclose former employers' confidential information." OpenAI also defends itself by accusing Apple of failing to properly protect its own data, claiming that the Cupertino company has "encouraged employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work, intermingling company and personal data, while failing to manage access cleanly across multiple Apple systems when employees departed." The case comes at a sensitive time for OpenAI, which is worth a reported $852 billion as it works towards a potential IPO. The lab is also locked into a fierce competition with Anthropic, a rival AI lab in San Francisco that was founded by a group of former OpenAI employees.

OpenAI Seeks Dismissal of Apple Trade Secrets Lawsuit - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

OpenAI Moves to Dismiss Apple's Trade Secrets Lawsuit, Says It Has 'No Use, Need or Desire' for AAPL's Proprietary Information In a motion to dismiss, OpenAI's lawyers said the company had no use for Apple's proprietary information. "OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets," the filing stated, adding that OpenAI is "building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple." The company acknowledged hiring talent from Apple but framed it as standard recruitment, saying it seeks "the best engineers, inventors, developers and creators" drawn by its work. From Partnership to Legal Rivalry The relationship between Apple and OpenAI has shifted sharply since their 2024 partnership integrating ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence. In the case, Apple has asked the court to compel depositions from former employees Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI's Yu-Ting Peng, and another ex-Apple employee now at OpenAI. Earlier, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the dispute on X, saying, "I am not afraid of apple, but I have tremendous respect for them." Apple's Vision Pro hardware chief, Paul Meade, had already left for OpenAI in June, joining former Apple executives Jony Ive, Tang Tan and Evans Hankey on its hardware team. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

OpenAI Paints A Picture Of Utter Incompetence At Apple, Shows Apple Lawyers "Emailed The Wrong Person After Confusing Two Asian Last Names"

When Apple filed a damning lawsuit against OpenAI a few weeks back for supposedly stealing secrets related to a slew of upcoming consumer-oriented AI devices, we were led to believe that the maker of iPhones had a rock-solid case against OpenAI, replete with the proverbial smoking gun. OpenAI's scathing response to Apple's lawsuit, however, has just demolished that fallacy, painting a picture of utter incompetence within Apple's labyrinthine halls instead. OpenAI says Apple invented a conversation with its general counsel and approached one of the principle defendants only to ask for his help in accessing more information Back in July, Apple filed what appeared to be a damning lawsuit at the time against OpenAI, accusing it of stealing its proprietary technology, circuit designs, and component architecture for a slew of upcoming consumer-geared AI devices. Apple tallied within the lawsuit application that over 400 of its former employees have ended up at OpenAI, with the iPhone maker's former VP of Design, Tang Tan, reportedly playing a pivotal role by encouraging Apple employees vying for a stint at OpenAI to bring actual Apple hardware components and samples for "show and tell" sessions. Now, however, OpenAI has responded with a cogent riposte, noting: As such, OpenAI feels Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is both "based on false information and completely unnecessary." Do note that OpenAI has been working on a number of AI devices, including AI-powered earbuds that bear the internal codename "Sweetpea" but might retail under the "Dime" brand name, and a consumer device that is shaped like a pen and bears the internal codename "Gumdrop." More recently, OpenAI appears to have pivoted to an AI phone, where users would rely on real-time AI agent inference using a combination of on-device and cloud-based models, rather than individual apps, to perform a variety of productivity tasks. Even so, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, OpenAI is likely to unveil a unique smart speaker first, one that has "mechanical elements" that can help it move around the house, and will come equipped with a rechargable battery. Of course, Apple is also actively preparing a somewhat similar smart home device that bears the internal codename J595, and will reportedly come equipped with a screen and a robotic arm. Meanwhile, Apple is also working to incorporate AI into a number of its upcoming products, including audio-only and AR-based smart glasses, camera-equipped AirPods Pro (though the latest tidbit suggests the product has been placed in a deep-freeze), and a wearable AI pin or pendant that would come equipped with multiple cameras, a speaker, microphones, and wireless charging. Apple's pin/pendant would presumably act as a conduit for channeling commands to Siri, while relying heavily on its iPhone counterpart for most processing despite sporting an onboard chip, albeit comparable in power to the one that is housed within the AirPods or the Apple Watch. Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.

OpenAI seeks dismissal of Apple's trade secrets lawsuit

OpenAI asked a judge to dismiss Apple's lawsuit accusing it of trade-secret theft. The company stated it is building something entirely new and different from Apple. Apple had alleged OpenAI exploited confidential information through former employees and suppliers. The lawsuit highlights a battle over control of future AI devices. OpenAI argues Apple's complaint lacks sufficient detail to support its claims. OpenAI asked a US judge on Wednesday to dismiss Apple's lawsuit that accused the ChatGPT maker and two former Apple employees of trade-secret theft to help it expand into consumer hardware, saying it was building something "entirely new." "OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets. OpenAI is building ⁠something entirely ⁠new and different from anything at Apple," lawyers for OpenAI wrote in the motion to dismiss filed on Wednesday. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on OpenAI's motion. Apple had alleged in its complaint in July that OpenAI systematically obtained and exploited Apple's confidential information through former employees, recruiting practices and supplier relationships to accelerate its consumer ⁠hardware ambitions. The lawsuit between the two tech companies set up a battle over who will control future AI devices that may not use ⁠traditional apps or operating systems - devices which, if successful, would direct consumer attention away from Apple's best-selling iPhone. Analysts believe OpenAI is working on a phone or other device of its own. "Apple's complaint fails to sufficiently describe the information for which it claims trade secret protection; its generalized product development categories are not sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," OpenAI said in the filing. The company argued that the iPhone maker also failed to demonstrate it owned "a protectable trade secret" or to "plausibly allege misappropriation" by any of the defendants. "Apple should ⁠not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," the motion said. The two companies have an existing partnership that allows Apple users to access ChatGPT results through Siri, while iPhone users can also sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly from the iOS settings menu.

OpenAI Seeks Dismissal of Apple Trade Secrets Lawsuit | PYMNTS.com

The artificial intelligence startup said Apple's claims have no merit, and its lawsuit falsely portrays its employees' actions, according to documents filed Wednesday (Aug. 5) by OpenAI in federal court. "Apple built its reputation by paying close attention to the smallest details," the filing said. "This lawsuit does the opposite. Plainly filed without adequate investigation and built on selectively excerpted communications and ordinary conduct stripped of context, Apple's complaint is -- to borrow its own phrase -- 'rotten to its core.'" OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan was acting in accordance with industry recruiting standards when interviewing Apple employees, according to the filing. OpenAI technical staff member Chang Liu, who was accused of theft, was trying to help a former colleague at Apple, and not -- as the iPhone maker alleged -- attempting to purloin trade secrets. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," OpenAI's filing said. Apple did not reply to PYMNTS' request for comment. Apple filed its lawsuit last month, alleging that Tan and Liu stole trade secrets to support the development of devices at OpenAI. The suit alleged Tan emailed himself information about Apple's suppliers and asked Apple employees to bring parts with them when interviewing for jobs with OpenAI. Apple also claimed Liu downloaded confidential files from Apple's network and instructed an Apple employee how to copy confidential files. Apple said in the suit that it doesn't know what OpenAI did with the information but alleged that "at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple's trade secrets and confidential information." Days after the suit was filed, the Financial Times reported that Apple sent letters to around 40 ex-employees now working for OpenAI, demanding they preserve documents and communications and meet with Apple attorneys. Roughly 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

Apple Says More Ex-Staffers Involved in Data Leaks; OpenAI Takes Lawsuit Into Public Forum

Apple seeks temporary injunction on OpenAI's possible hardware plans while the ChatGPT-maker claims the iPhone-maker has got it all wrong The legal battle between Apple and OpenAI has escalated into a major one with OpenAI going to great lengths to push back on the iPhone-maker's allegations of hardware theft. The company took the battle into a public forum by claiming that Apple's case was based on false information, even as the tech giant sought an injunction on OpenAI developing its own AI device. In a new filing, Apple claimed that more of its former staff may be involved in the alleged trade secrets thefts and has requested expedited discovery from the accused OpenAI employees - senior systems engineer Chang Liu and chief hardware officer Tang Yew Tan. OpenAI and its foundation as well as device startup 'io' co-founded by Apple's former lead designer Jony Ive. On its part, OpenAI took to its blogging page to post a lengthy retort to the original lawsuit filed by Apple a month ago. It seeks to explain its side of the dispute and shares email exchanges while defending former Apple executives who are now employed with the AI model maker. While OpenAI did issue brief statements earlier, this one is the first where they respond in detail. The blog also published supporting documents and screenshots to bolster OpenAI's claims while also strongly criticising Apple's legal offensive claiming that they had never properly raised the specific concerns before filing the lawsuit. "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details. This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation," the blog says. They challenged Apple's timelines as well claiming that the company incorrectly claimed that it had contacted them before filing the lawsuit. The blog says while Apple's lawyers had emailed them, it was addressed to the wrong person and this error was accepted that their General Counsel never had the conversation referred to in the original filings. In fact, OpenAI claimed that Apple had communicated their interest in "resolving any issues" before going silent for several months and then filing the lawsuit. "Apple had claimed that they contacted OpenAI in February and that we didn't respond. They now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names... We then heard nothing for five months until they sued," the blog notes. However, Apple's latest request before the court seems to suggest that they're escalating matters even more post the OpenAI public rebuke. The company says its continued investigation has revealed 11 other former employees could've been witnesses or otherwise involved in the case. They suggest that new evidence of the misconduct goes beyond former employees. "For example, another former Apple employee seems to have met with Mr. Liu and Ms. Peng in advance of Ms. Peng's interview at OpenAI and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products," says the filing. "Yet another former Apple employee took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before an interview at OpenAI." "And, after Apple filed its complaint, multiple former Apple employees now working at OpenAI reached out to discuss returning Apple-issued work devices they kept when they left Apple," Apple says, suggesting that more individuals could possibly be involved. Apple's latest broadside appears to be a direct response to OpenAI's efforts to defend the two former employees of the iPhone-maker named directly in the lawsuit. OpenAI defended Chang Liu by arguing that any instance continued access to their former staffer was a result of Apple's own account management practices. However, the defence for Tang Tan was even stronger as OpenAI claims that his conduct was beyond reproach as he had consistently instructed his team not to use confidential information from his previous employers. "Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies," the blog said. The ChatGPT-maker said they would have welcomed discussions with Apple before the lawsuit but was still willing to resolve the dispute. They however rejected Apple's request for a preliminary injunction stating that it neither possess nor wants Apple's trade secrets because it is focussed on developing its own products and technologies. On their part, Apple is pushing the court to allow for expedited discovery because it believes there is good cause to suspect that others could be involved in the intellectual property theft, as alleged in its original filing. Looks like this one is destined to be a long-drawn affair between the OG of smartphone innovation and a young pretender that believes it can do much better.

Apple Seeks Court Order in AI Trade Secrets Dispute With OpenAI | PYMNTS.com

The request, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks to bar the defendants from using or disclosing what Apple says are its proprietary trade secrets while the lawsuit proceeds. Apple also requested expedited discovery, including documents and depositions from the former employees and representatives of OpenAI and io Products, Reuters reported. According to Reuters, Apple argues that immediate court intervention is necessary because it faces irreparable harm if the alleged misuse of its confidential information continues before the case is resolved. The underlying lawsuit accuses OpenAI and former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan of misappropriating Apple's trade secrets to support OpenAI's consumer hardware ambitions. Reuters reported that Apple alleges the confidential information relates to hardware development that could compete with products such as the iPhone. OpenAI rejected Apple's request for preliminary relief, according to Reuters. The company said the proposed injunction is unwarranted and based on inaccurate allegations, maintaining that it neither possesses nor seeks Apple's confidential information. The dispute highlights growing competition between Apple and OpenAI as both companies pursue next-generation AI-powered consumer devices. Reuters reported that the case reflects broader tensions between the companies as artificial intelligence expands into hardware markets traditionally dominated by established consumer electronics manufacturers. The case remains pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where the court will determine whether Apple has met the legal standard for obtaining preliminary injunctive relief before the merits of the lawsuit are decided.

Apple seeks preliminary injunction against OpenAI in trade secrets case

Apple has requested a judge to prevent former employees and OpenAI from using confidential information. The tech giant is suing OpenAI and two ex-employees for trade secret theft. Apple also filed a motion seeking expedited discovery of relevant documents. The lawsuit aims to protect Apple's future hardware innovations from competitors. OpenAI denies any wrongdoing and states they do not want Apple's trade secrets. Apple on Monday asked a US judge for a preliminary injunction barring two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, acquiring, using or disclosing alleged confidential information as it moves ahead with its trade secrets case. Apple last month sued OpenAI and the two former employees, both now working for OpenAI, ⁠alleging misappropriation ⁠of its trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT-owner's foray into consumer hardware, a dramatic escalation of already simmering tension between the two companies. The iPhone maker also filed a concurrent motion on Monday seeking expedited discovery, including production of documents relating to the defendants' alleged access of Apple's proprietary and trade secret information. It asked the judge to order the two former Apple employees named in the ⁠lawsuit, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, to sit for depositions, along with OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng and an unnamed OpenAI employee who previously ⁠worked at Apple. Liu is a former Apple senior system electrical engineer while Tan is Apple's former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple also sought depositions from corporate representatives of OpenAI and io Products, which is OpenAI's commercial arm and is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. "Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction," it said in a filing. "Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," OpenAI said in a blog post late on ⁠Monday. Apple's lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, comes after OpenAI successfully fended off a legal challenge from Elon Musk's xAI. The lawsuit sets up a battle over the control of future AI devices that may not use traditional apps or operating systems - devices which, if successful, would direct consumer attention away from Apple's best-selling iPhone. Analysts believe OpenAI is working on a phone or other device of its own.

Apple asks judge to slam breaks on OpenAI's hardware ambitions, latest twist in high-stakes suit

Apple has asked a federal judge to slam the brakes on OpenAI's hardware ambitions, leading the ChatGPT maker to fire back that the iPhone giant's own lawyers couldn't even email the right Asian executive The Cupertino, Calif.-based behemoth sought a preliminary injunction late Monday barring OpenAI and two former Apple staffers from accessing, using or sharing what it claims are stolen trade secrets, warning the court it faces irreparable harm without one. Hours later, OpenAI hit back with a blistering blog post that branded the suit "careless, aggressive and oddly personal" -- and accused Tim Cook's Apple of botching basic facts. Apple had claimed it warned OpenAI about the alleged theft in February and heard nothing back. Those charges were denied by the Sam Altman-led firm. OpenAI said Apple now admits its outside lawyers emailed the wrong man after mixing up two Asian surnames and the company only came clean once the artificial intelligence giant pointed out the blunder. "Apple had claimed that they contacted OpenAI in February and that we didn't respond. They now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names -- only after we brought this to their attention," OpenAI said. Emails published by the company show Weil, Gotshal & Manges partner Gabriel Gross sent his warning letter to OpenAI general counsel Che Chang instead of a former Apple employee surnamed Wang. Gross also thanked Chang for a phone call that OpenAI says never took place, which is a claim it says Apple has since walked back. A baffled Chang forwarded the note to Apple's in-house lawyers, writing that he had never spoken to Gross and did not know who he was. Gross later apologized for the mix-up and said Wang had offered to cooperate. Then, OpenAI said, Apple went silent for five months -- until the iPhone maker sued. Apple filed its bombshell complaint July 10 in the Northern District of California, accusing OpenAI of running a months-long scheme to loot its hardware secrets as the startup races to build its first consumer device. The suit names Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, Apple's ex-vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, who now leads OpenAI's hardware effort. Apple claims Liu used a former colleague's laptop to siphon dozens of confidential hardware files after he quit, while Tan allegedly forwarded supplier details to his personal email and coached incoming hires on skirting Apple's exit process. OpenAI called the injunction request needless, insisting it neither holds nor wants any Apple secrets. The startup also released a trove of iMessages that it says flips Apple's story on its head. The texts show Apple employees pleading with Liu for help tracking down files and technical details after his final day -- with one former colleague joking that Liu was "the best" source, "even if you don't work here anymore." OpenAI said any lingering access to Apple systems stemmed from the iPhone maker's own sloppy offboarding, which leaves departed workers connected to company files they never asked to keep. As for Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple, OpenAI said he has always told his team it must not touch confidential material from other companies. Apple also demanded expedited discovery Monday, asking the judge to order depositions of Liu, Tan, OpenAI staffer Yu-Ting Peng and an unnamed fourth employee who once worked at Apple. "Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction," it said in a filing. OpenAI agreed to three of Apple's five demands -- which included halting any future access, stopping any use and preserving evidence -- but refused to let the tech giant's lawyers and forensic experts comb through its devices, drives and networks. The brawl carries huge stakes for both sides. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, which analysts believe is developing a phone-like AI device that could lure consumers away from apps, as well and the iPhone itself. OpenAI defeated a separate legal challenge from Elon Musk's xAI earlier this year. The Post has sought comment from Apple, OpenAI and Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

OpenAI asks court to throw out Apple trade secrets lawsuit, says iPhone maker is masking AI failures

The legal battle follows Apple's earlier request for an injunction to stop OpenAI from allegedly using confidential trade secrets. OpenAI has moved to dismiss the controversial Apple's trade secret lawsuit. The ChatGPT maker has accused Apple of using the courts to cover up its own struggles in retaining talent and advancing its artificial intelligence efforts. In a filing submitted to a US federal court in California, the ChatGPT maker argued that Apple's case lacks factual basis and should not proceed. "Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," OpenAI said. The company also described Apple's complaint as being "plainly filed without adequate investigation" and claimed it relied on selectively presented communications that stripped routine workplace interactions of their context. This comes from a legal dispute that comes from a lawsuit filed in July stating that OpenAI and several former Apple employees misappropriated confidential information to accelerate the company's AI hardware ambitions. Apple also named OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan, former Apple engineer Chang Liu and several others stating that they improperly accessed or used internal information related to unreleased products and technology. On the other hand, OpenAI has rejected these claims staging that it has 'no use, need or desire' for Apple trade secrets. Instead, the company has argued that it is developing an entirely different category of AI hardware and is simply attracting engineers who voluntarily chose to leave Apple. The filing also defended its hiring practices saying interviews conducted with former Apple employees followed standard industry norms and did not involve the requests for confidential material. OpenAI further claimed Apple failed to identify any specific trade secret that had actually been obtained or used by the company. This comes days after Apple asked a preliminary injunction asking the court to stop OpenAI and the former employees from accessing or using any alleged trade secrets while the case is pending. Apple also requested for an expedited discovery, including depositions and internal documents, arguing that it faced irreparable harm if the court did not intervene.

Elon Musk says OpenAI cannot be trusted as Apple seeks court injunction in trade secrets lawsuit

Apple also said its investigation has identified 11 other former Apple employees beyond Liu and Tan who may have been witnesses or played a role in the case. Apple has stepped up its legal fight against OpenAI by asking a US court for a preliminary injunction in its trade secrets lawsuit. The iPhone maker wants the court to stop OpenAI from developing AI devices or other products that it believes could be based on Apple's confidential technology while the case continues. Apple also claims that its ongoing investigation has uncovered signs that more former employees may have been involved in the alleged theft of trade secrets. Reacting to a post on X about Apple's latest court move, Elon Musk wrote, "Can't trust OpenAI." In a new court filing, Apple asked for expedited discovery from OpenAI, its foundation, hardware chief Tang Yew Tan, senior systems engineer Chang Liu, and io, the hardware startup co-founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive. Also read: OpenAI and Anthropic AI agents attempt to bypass security using fake identities: Here is what happened Apple also said its investigation has identified 11 other former Apple employees beyond Liu and Tan who may have been witnesses or played a role in the case, according to TechCrunch. The company mentioned that this group includes people beyond those named in its original complaint. "For example, another former Apple employee seems to have met with Mr. Liu and Ms. Peng in advance of Ms. Peng's interview at OpenAI and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products," the filing reads, as per TechCrunch. "Yet another former Apple employee took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before an interview at OpenAI." "And, after Apple filed its complaint, multiple former Apple employees now working at OpenAI reached out to discuss returning Apple-issued work devices they kept when they left Apple," Apple claimed in the filing. Also read: OpenAI hits back at Apple trade secret lawsuit, says iPhone maker got key facts wrong Apple argued that these developments give it good reason to believe more people may have been involved in the alleged theft of intellectual property. The company said this is why it is asking the court to allow expedited discovery while its request for a preliminary injunction is being considered. OpenAI has responded to Apple's latest claims in a public blog post. The company said Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is "both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets." OpenAI added, "We're much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier." The company also criticised Apple's handling of the case. It said Apple had previously contacted the wrong person after confusing two similar surnames. OpenAI further claimed that Apple lied about discussing matters with its general counsel.

OpenAI hits back at Apple trade secret lawsuit, says iPhone maker got key facts wrong

OpenAI defended former Apple executive Tang Tan and said it has no interest in using Apple's confidential information. OpenAI has openly pushed back against Apple's trade secret lawsuit accusing the iPhone maker of filing a case based on inaccurate claims and failing to engage with the company before taking legal action. In a statement, OpenAI described the lawsuit as careless and said it does not reflect Apple's reputation for paying attention to detail. Among the key disputes, one of the major ones revolves around Apple's claim that it contacted OpenAI in February regarding concerns over former Apple employees. OpenAI says Apple has now admitted that its outside legal counsel mistakenly emailed the wrong person after confusing two individuals with similar surnames. The company also rejected Apple's assertion that its General Counsel had spoken with Apple's lawyers stating no such discussion ever took place. As per OpenAI, Apple never mentioned the specific allegation that later appeared in the lawsuit. Instead, the company claims Apple's legal representatives indicated they were resolving the issue before remaining silent for nearly five months and eventually filing the case. Also read: Samsung Galaxy S25 to get Rs 15,000 price cut on Flipkart Freedom Sale The company also challenged Apple's allegations against former Apple engineer Chang Liu. The company published screenshots of iMessage conversations that it says show Apple employees contacted Liu after he left the company, asking him to help locate files and answer technical questions related to ongoing projects. OpenAI argued that the continued access was the result of Apple's own failure to revoke internal permissions after employees departed rather than any deliberate attempt by Liu to retain confidential information. The AI company has also defended Tang Tan, the former Apple executive who joined OpenAI earlier this year. The company stated that Tan has repeatedly instructed employees not to bring confidential material from previous employers and noted that he spent more than 24 years at Apple, where he earned a reputation as one of the company's leading product innovators. OpenAI also stated that it has no interest in Apple's confidential information and would have been willing to discuss the concerns before the lawsuit was filed. It also called Apple's request for preliminary injunction as unnecessary. The company also released email exchanges and internal messages stating Apple's legal team mistakenly contacted the wrong person and that former Apple employees were approached by Apple staff for assistance even after leaving the company.