OpenAI Calls Apple’s Lawsuit ‘Careless & Personal’

OpenAI has accused Apple of pursuing a “careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit” and said a request for a preliminary injunction is “based on false information and completely unnecessary”. 

The company reiterated that it does not have, nor want, any of Apple’s trade secrets. In a detailed blog post, it published emails and internal messages that it says contradict Apple’s account of events leading up to the case.

The dispute stems from Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI, former Apple hardware executive Tang Tan and former Apple engineer Chang Liu. 

Apple alleges the former employees retained confidential information and trade secrets after leaving the company and that OpenAI sought to benefit from Apple’s proprietary hardware research as it expands into AI-powered consumer devices. 

The litigation has now entered its first substantive stage. 

Earlier this week, Apple formally moved for a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery, asking the court to bar the defendants from accessing, using or disclosing Apple’s alleged trade secrets while the case proceeds. 

However, OpenAI argued that Apple’s account of the events preceding the lawsuit omits key facts. 

The company said Apple’s outside counsel mistakenly contacted the wrong person after, according to OpenAI, confusing two Asian last names, before later apologising for the error. 

Apple subsequently confirmed the incident was a miscommunication, according to the correspondence published by OpenAI. 

OpenAI also argued that Apple never raised the specific allegations contained in its lawsuit during those exchanges and instead told the company it was ‘resolving any issues’ before remaining silent for five months until filing suit.

OpenAI also disputed Apple’s allegations against Liu. 

While Apple accused Liu of accessing confidential Apple information after leaving the company, OpenAI said Apple employees themselves repeatedly contacted him after his departure, asking for help locating files and technical information needed for Apple’s ongoing work. 

The company published iMessage exchanges that it said show Apple employees requesting Liu’s assistance with file transfers, engineering documents and technical questions weeks after he had already joined OpenAI.

According to OpenAI, those messages undermine Apple’s claim that Liu intentionally accessed Apple confidential information after leaving the company. 

Instead, it argued that any continued access resulted from Apple’s own failure to properly revoke system permissions when employees departed. 

The company said Apple was attempting to shift the blame to ‘residual access’ without acknowledging that such access remained available because of its own internal systems.

The company also defended Tan, who spent more than 24 years at Apple before joining OpenAI to lead its hardware efforts. 

OpenAI said Tan had consistently instructed his team that they must not obtain or use confidential information from previous employers, rejecting Apple’s allegation that he sought to acquire or use Apple’s trade secrets.

The case is currently before the US District Court for the Northern District of California, where Apple filed the lawsuit on last month against OpenAI, OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, io Products, alongside former Tan and Liu. 

Apple alleges the defendants misappropriated confidential hardware trade secrets to accelerate OpenAI’s consumer hardware programme following its acquisition of io Products, the AI hardware startup co-founded by former Apple executives Tan, Evans Hankey, alongside former Apple design chief Jony Ive and Scott Cannon.

Apple is seeking damages, expedited discovery, and preliminary and permanent injunctions against OpenAI, io Products and the former Apple employees named in the lawsuit. 

It has also requested depositions of Tan, Liu, OpenAI employees and corporate representatives from OpenAI and io Products. 

The legal dispute marks a reversal from the companies’ relationship just over two years ago, when Apple partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and other Apple Intelligence features across iPhone, iPad and Mac.