Apple seeks injunction against OpenAI, claims 11 more ex-employees may be tied to trade secrets theft

The injunction request

Apple on Monday asked a U.S. judge for a preliminary injunction barring two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, using or disclosing alleged confidential information. The iPhone maker also filed a concurrent motion seeking expedited discovery, including depositions from former Apple senior system electrical engineer Chang Liu, former vice president of product design Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng, an unnamed former Apple employee now at OpenAI, and corporate representatives of OpenAI and its commercial arm io Products.

"Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction," the company said in a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

A widening investigation

In a new court filing, Apple said its continued investigation has so far revealed 11 other former employees beyond Liu and Tan who may have been witnesses or otherwise involved in the case. The filing states that another former Apple employee met with Liu and Peng ahead of Peng's interview at OpenAI "and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products." A different former employee "took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple Product before an interview at OpenAI."

Apple also claimed that after it 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 the company.

OpenAI's public rebuttal

OpenAI responded with a blog post titled "Apple is getting this wrong," calling the lawsuit "careless, aggressive and oddly personal." The company published redacted iMessage and email exchanges involving Liu that it says show Apple employees contacted him after he left to ask for help locating certain files.

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 Apple's claim that it tried to contact the startup in February and received no response is inaccurate. According to OpenAI, Apple's lawyers "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 company 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."

The accused employees

Apple's lawsuit centers on Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tan, Apple's former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch who spent 24 years at the company and is now OpenAI's chief hardware officer. Apple alleges Liu used a former colleague's company-owned laptop to download technical documents and instructed another Apple colleague on how to "avoid trouble" with the company's security team ahead of her joining OpenAI. Tan is accused of directing job candidates still working for Apple to bring "actual parts" to show OpenAI personnel at interviews.

OpenAI said Tan "has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies." Regarding Liu, OpenAI argued the blame should fall on Apple for "failing to properly manage system access when people leave."

The hardware race

Apple's lawsuit, filed in July, comes after OpenAI acquired io, the design studio founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion last year. The legal battle sets up a fight over the control of future AI devices that may not use traditional apps or operating systems. Analysts believe OpenAI is working on a phone or other device of its own, and rumors have circulated about an AI-enabled smart speaker. Apple alleged in its lawsuit that more than 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI.