Read, Watch or Listen

San Francisco, United States – Apple Inc. has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing OpenAI and two former employees of stealing trade secrets. The complaint, lodged on Friday, July 10, alleges that OpenAI encouraged Apple employees to share confidential information about unreleased hardware products and to bring Apple prototypes and design artifacts to job interviews. Apple claims the company’s intellectual property and confidential information were used both to develop OpenAI’s own suite of hardware devices and to support OpenAI’s software development. The lawsuit names Tang Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and Apple’s former vice president of product design, as a defendant, along with another former Apple employee, Chang Liu, who allegedly removed dozens of confidential hardware files after joining OpenAI. Cupertino, United States – In its court filing, Apple asserts that OpenAI benefited from detailed knowledge of Apple’s unreleased products and internal design work, and that this conduct constitutes theft of trade secrets. Apple is asking the court to order OpenAI to cease any alleged infringement, destroy all proprietary materials derived from Apple’s information, and redesign any unreleased OpenAI products to ensure they do not contain Apple technology. The company is also seeking a jury trial. The case was filed as OpenAI prepares for an initial public offering, and Apple states that it is bringing the suit to stop what it characterizes as former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI.

Prepared by Christopher Adams and reviewed by editorial team.