- Apple filed a court brief Monday escalating its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that former iPhone engineer Chang Liu “not only downloaded a confidential Apple circuit schematic but also used it in his work” at OpenAI after leaving Apple in January — and that OpenAI is “actively destroying crucial evidence,” based on a forensic analysis of Liu’s Apple-issued MacBook that found Liu “sent instructions for destroying evidence to an OpenAI colleague who confirmed she would comply.”
- The MacBook itself is central to the escalation: Apple’s filing states that OpenAI “only recently” provided the device after weeks of delay, and that initial forensic analysis found Liu and others at OpenAI “were well aware” of his continued unauthorized access to Apple’s third-party cloud storage providers after departing the company — access OpenAI claims was on behalf of Apple employees for Apple work purposes, but which Apple characterizes as unauthorized ongoing theft.
- OpenAI’s counter-filing on Monday called the dispute “a mess of Apple’s own making” and reiterated that any Apple documents accessed by Liu are “irrelevant” to his work at OpenAI; OpenAI criticized Apple’s “sloppy procedures” around data security and employee exit management, warned that Apple’s requested injunction could “chill employee mobility,” and said “Apple may not like those choices — but it cannot claim those choices are unlawful,” referring to the 400+ former Apple employees who have joined OpenAI.
- The context reveals the full competitive stakes: the Apple-OpenAI relationship deteriorated sharply after OpenAI enlisted former Apple design legend Jony Ive to develop hardware products including a doughnut-shaped smart speaker (roughly the size of a hockey puck, with moving parts for personality, priced above $300) — putting OpenAI directly in competition with Apple’s hardware business at exactly the moment OpenAI was also hiring hundreds of Apple’s engineers; a federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments on Apple’s injunction motion on October 1.
What Happened?
Apple filed a court brief Monday in support of its motion for expedited pretrial fact-finding in its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI. The filing alleges: (1) Liu downloaded and used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his OpenAI work; (2) OpenAI dragged its feet providing evidence and only recently handed over Liu’s Apple-issued MacBook; (3) forensic analysis of that MacBook found Liu sent instructions to destroy evidence to an OpenAI colleague who agreed to comply; (4) the laptop also contains a tool with the same name as an internal Apple engineering application. OpenAI filed its own brief the same day calling the dispute “a mess of Apple’s own making,” defending Liu’s cloud access as benign, and urging the court to significantly narrow any injunction.
Why It Matters?
This lawsuit is one of the most consequential intellectual property cases in the AI industry, for two reasons. First, the technical stakes are high: circuit schematics are among the most protected categories of trade secrets in hardware engineering, and if Apple can establish that OpenAI used proprietary chip design knowledge, the remedies — injunctions, damages, disgorgement — could materially affect OpenAI’s hardware ambitions. Second, the “400 former Apple employees” framing is a warning to every AI company that has hired aggressively from established tech firms: Apple is signaling it will litigate employee IP retention far more aggressively than it has in the past. The evidence destruction allegation, if proven, is also potentially very damaging — courts treat spoliation of evidence seriously, and a finding that OpenAI instructed an employee to destroy evidence could lead to sanctions that effectively decide the case.
What’s Next?
The October 1 hearing on Apple’s injunction motion is the next major milestone. If the judge grants expedited discovery, Apple will gain access to OpenAI’s systems and communications related to Liu’s work — potentially revealing much more about how OpenAI uses knowledge brought from Apple by its 400+ former Apple hires. Watch whether the evidence destruction finding leads the judge to issue a preservation order or sanctions before October 1. Also watch Apple’s September 9 event (foldable iPhone launch under new CEO John Ternus) — Apple’s public hardware posture and its legal posture against OpenAI’s hardware ambitions are now directly related strategies.
Source: Bloomberg
