Apple’s trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI just got a lot more pointed. The iPhone maker says it now has what it calls “shocking evidence” that former employee Chang Liu — who now works at OpenAI — used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his new role, along with a tool that shares a name with an internal Apple engineering application. The details surfaced after Liu’s legal team finally handed over his old Apple work laptop earlier this month, following weeks of delay.
Apple isn’t mincing words. In a court filing, the company wrote that “the MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed.” The company claims Liu enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence back in June, right when he learned Apple was investigating him. Earlier filings included text messages from Liu — punctuated with crying laughing emojis — showing he knew he still had access to Apple files.
OpenAI has defended Liu by arguing he only accessed Apple files after leaving to help former colleagues who asked for assistance. The company also blamed Apple for the mess, writing in a blog post that “Apple now tries to shift the blame to ‘residual access,’ but they also don’t disclose that this is a common issue with Apple which is caused by them failing to properly manage system access when people leave.” Apple’s counter: Liu exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug to maintain that access.
Apple is now seeking a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple technology while the case proceeds, plus expedited discovery since it believes more former employees may be implicated. The stakes are clear: Apple says more than 400 ex-Apple staffers now work at OpenAI. That’s not a talent drain — that’s a pipeline, and Apple clearly wants to know exactly what walked out the door with them.
