OpenAI has answered the Apple-OpenAI trade secrets lawsuit with a public rejection of Apple’s allegations, saying the iPhone maker’s request for an early court order relies on false information. The August 3 post says OpenAI does not possess or want Apple trade secrets and calls the lawsuit unnecessary.
Apple sued in federal court in Northern California on July 10, naming OpenAI, io Products, former Apple engineer Chang Liu and OpenAI hardware chief Tang Yew Tan. Apple alleges that the defendants obtained and used confidential Apple information to support OpenAI’s consumer-hardware efforts. Those allegations have not been decided by a court.
The case lands awkwardly for two companies that partnered in 2024 to put ChatGPT access into Apple devices. Apple’s complaint concerns a separate area: OpenAI’s move toward consumer hardware. OpenAI acquired io Products, the Jony Ive-founded hardware startup, last year, according to Reuters.
What does OpenAI say about Apple’s trade-secret lawsuit?
OpenAI disputes Apple’s account of an earlier attempt to raise concerns. It says Apple’s outside lawyers initially emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian surnames, and that Apple later conceded it had not discussed the matter with OpenAI’s general counsel. OpenAI also says Apple never raised the lawsuit’s specific allegations in those exchanges and then went silent for five months. Those are OpenAI’s descriptions of the parties’ communications.
Apple had said it contacted OpenAI in February about confidential information allegedly reaching the AI company and received no reply, Reuters reported. The two sides therefore disagree on a basic point of the pre-lawsuit timeline, before getting to the much harder question of what information, if any, changed hands.
Apple alleges Liu kept a company laptop and used an authentication flaw after leaving to enter Apple’s internal network and download confidential hardware files. OpenAI says Apple employees contacted Liu after his departure to ask for help locating information for their Apple work. It argues that lingering access can result when Apple does not properly revoke former employees’ system access.
Apple also alleges Tan sent himself supplier information and internal industry summaries before he left, and encouraged Apple job candidates to bring Apple parts to OpenAI interviews. OpenAI says Tan instructed its team not to obtain or use confidential information belonging to other companies.
What is Apple asking the court to do?
Apple seeks damages and injunctive relief, including a preliminary injunction. That is a temporary court order sought before a case reaches a final judgment; here, Apple wants to stop the defendants from accessing, acquiring, using or disclosing the information it says was taken.
OpenAI says it has taken the allegations seriously and offered to work with Apple, while maintaining the requested injunction is unwarranted. Apple’s claims and OpenAI’s rebuttal remain competing accounts. The court has not ruled on either side’s version of events.
This story draws on original reporting from Tom's Hardware.
