Apple vs OpenAI: What the trade secret theft lawsuit is about

A US district judge on Tuesday partially approved Apple’s request to access evidence early in its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI. The judge has ordered the ChatGPT maker and other defendants to hand over documents related to the hiring of former Apple employees for OpenAI’s consumer hardware group, including internal communications and evidence collected from electronic devices.

The order could help Apple gather evidence to support its allegations that former employees shared confidential information with OpenAI to help it develop consumer hardware products.

The lawsuit


In the lawsuit, which was filed in July, Apple accused OpenAI, io Products and two former employees, Chang Liu and Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng, of taking or using its trade secrets and breaking confidentiality agreements.

Apple alleges that former employees accessed or shared confidential information about its products and technologies to help OpenAI develop its own hardware.

According to Apple’s complaint, Chang worked at the company for more than eight years as a senior system electrical engineer. Apple alleges that he did not return an Apple-issued computer after leaving the company in January.

The company further alleges that Chang used a security flaw to access its internal file storage after leaving and downloaded confidential files related to its hardware products.

Apple also claims that Chang shared information with Yu-Ting, who was still working at Apple at the time, and helped her prepare for job interviews at OpenAI using confidential material.

The lawsuit also names Tang Yew Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and was its vice-president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch before joining OpenAI. Apple alleges that Tang and other OpenAI employees asked candidates from Apple to discuss confidential technologies and bring product components, prototypes and design materials to interviews.

What has OpenAI said?

In a response published in August, OpenAI denied Apple’s allegations and accused the iPhone maker of giving a misleading account of its communication with the AI company 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,” OpenAI said.

“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 company added.