In the openai apple trade secrets lawsuit, OpenAI has launched an aggressive public response.
Additionally, it includes emails and texts that undermine the claims as Apple seeks court order restricting access to confidential information.
The dispute escalated this week after Apple sought an injunction against OpenAI, io Products, and two former Apple employees. Additionally, the request blocks access to information in the openai apple trade secrets lawsuit.
Apple filed the lawsuit on July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The company alleges that OpenAI and former employees Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan misappropriated confidential information as OpenAI accelerated its ambitions in consumer AI hardware.
The case also involves io Products, which OpenAI acquired in a deal valued at $6.5 billion involving former Apple employees, including longtime Apple design chief Jony Ive.
Apple alleges that former employees took or shared confidential designs, prototypes, technical documents, manufacturing information and supplier details. The company claims Liu retained access to Apple systems after leaving in January 2026 and downloaded sensitive files. Having spent 24 years at Apple and holding senior roles, Tan is accused of helping recruit former Apple personnel. He is also accused of sharing proprietary knowledge.
Apple has also said that more than 400 former employees now work at OpenAI.
The company intensified its legal campaign Monday by seeking a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery. Apple wants access to documents and depositions from the defendants and other OpenAI personnel, arguing that confidential information could cause irreparable harm if it becomes incorporated into OpenAI’s products or operations.
Apple has reportedly identified about 11 additional former employees who could have information relevant to the dispute. A hearing on the injunction is scheduled for October 1.
OpenAI challenges Apple’s account
OpenAI responded with a sharply worded blog post titled “Apple is getting this wrong,” accusing Apple of presenting an inaccurate account of events and describing the lawsuit as aggressive and unnecessarily personal.
The company said it has no interest in using competitors trade secrets and argued that Apple’s request for an injunction relies on false or misleading information.
To support its position, OpenAI published emails and iMessage exchanges that it says contradict several elements of Apple’s allegations.
One dispute concerns Apple’s pre-lawsuit communications. OpenAI said Apple had claimed that it contacted the company in February but received no response. According to OpenAI, Apple’s outside counsel initially contacted the wrong person after confusing two Asian surnames and claimed to have spoken with OpenAI’s general counsel when no such call occurred.
OpenAI said Apple later apologized but did not provide details of its specific allegations for roughly five months, until the lawsuit was filed.
OpenAI also challenged Apple’s claims concerning Liu’s access to company systems after his departure. The materials released by OpenAI show Apple employees contacting Liu after he left on January 22 and asking him for assistance locating files and technical information.
OpenAI pointed to messages involving AirDrop transfers from an Apple-linked iCloud account, arguing that any residual access reflected weaknesses in Apple’s own offboarding procedures rather than intentional misconduct by Liu.
The company also said Tan has repeatedly instructed teams not to use confidential information belonging to previous employers.
The competing accounts set up a potentially lengthy legal battle over what information former employees carried with them, how Apple’s internal systems were accessed after their departures and whether any proprietary knowledge was ultimately used by OpenAI.
The dispute also reflects a broader shift in the technology industry. OpenAI, best known for ChatGPT and its AI models, is increasingly moving toward hardware, putting it in more direct competition with Apple, whose business has long been built around tightly integrated devices and software.
Apple has portrayed the lawsuit as a necessary defense of its confidential product development work. OpenAI argues that the case represents an overreach that could interfere with the movement of talent and the development of new products.
The next major test will come in October, when the court considers Apple’s request for preliminary restrictions. The outcome could have implications beyond the two companies, particularly for how technology firms protect trade secrets when employees move between major competitors and for how much proprietary knowledge can legally follow workers into a new company.
