AI Partner Turns Foe! Apple Demands Court Order to Halt OpenAI's Use and Return of Trade Secrets

The trade secret litigation between Apple (AAPL-US) and OpenAI continues to escalate. Apple recently filed a preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, demanding that OpenAI immediately cease using allegedly acquired trade secrets, return all related materials, and refrain from further accessing or using such information during the litigation. Apple warns that if the confidential technologies have already been integrated into OpenAI's products and operations, the damage would be irreparable.

The case stems from a lawsuit Apple filed in July. Apple alleges that OpenAI and two former Apple employees—Chang Liu, a former iPhone engineer who joined OpenAI in January, and Tang Tan, OpenAI’s current hardware lead and former senior Apple executive—systematically obtained Apple’s unreleased products, hardware designs, manufacturing processes, and supply chain trade secrets to advance OpenAI’s AI hardware product development.

According to court filings, Chang Liu allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in Apple’s authentication system to repeatedly access confidential internal hardware documents over several weeks after joining OpenAI. Apple also claims that Tang Tan, during recruitment of Apple employees, instructed job candidates to bring unreleased product components and related information to interviews and advised departing employees on how to bypass company security checks.

In addition to the injunction request, Apple is seeking expedited discovery, requiring OpenAI, its AI hardware division io Products, and relevant executives and employees to produce documents and submit to depositions early, aiming to quickly determine whether trade secrets have already been used or integrated into OpenAI’s products.

OpenAI has fully denied the allegations and published a public statement on its official blog titled 'Apple is getting this wrong,' describing Apple’s lawsuit as 'rash, aggressive, and personal.' The company emphasized that it 'has not and does not want any of Apple’s trade secrets' and has always prohibited employees from using former employers’ confidential information.

To counter Apple’s claims, OpenAI has simultaneously released portions of emails and iMessage content. OpenAI argues that Chang Liu did not proactively steal data but was contacted by current Apple employees after his departure, seeking help locating work-related files. The ability to access some data, OpenAI claims, resulted from Apple’s own account management and post-departure access revocation failures, not from any directive by OpenAI. OpenAI also pointed out that Apple’s lawyers mistakenly sent legal notices to the wrong individual due to a name confusion, questioning the factual accuracy of some of Apple’s assertions.

Court documents indicate that Apple believes failing to restrict OpenAI’s use of the data early could lead to further dissemination of trade secrets into product development, warranting immediate judicial intervention. OpenAI counters that Apple’s requested injunction lacks factual basis and practical necessity.

This legal battle highlights the rapid deterioration of the relationship between the two companies. Apple and OpenAI were originally partners through Apple Intelligence, with OpenAI providing ChatGPT technology to support Apple’s AI services. However, over the past year, as OpenAI invested approximately $6.5 billion to acquire io, an AI hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, and aggressively entered the consumer AI device market, the two have transitioned from partners to direct competitors.

The market is also watching closely as OpenAI has now hired over 400 former Apple employees, including numerous hardware and product design experts. Whether this talent movement involves trade secret protection will be a key issue in the case. Legal experts note that the case will likely involve defining the boundary between an employee’s professional expertise and a company’s trade secrets, potentially having far-reaching implications for talent mobility and competitive dynamics in Silicon Valley’s AI industry.

According to the court schedule, OpenAI must submit its formal response to the injunction request by August 17, and the court is set to hold a hearing on October 1 to decide whether to grant the preliminary injunction.