{"slug": "apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees", "title": "Apple Sends Legal Letters To Dozens of OpenAI Employees", "summary": "Apple has sent legal preservation letters to approximately 40 former employees now working at OpenAI, as part of its trade secret lawsuit alleging misappropriation of confidential information related to hardware engineering and product development. The lawsuit claims OpenAI recruited key Apple engineers, including former executives Tang Tan and Chang Liu, and benefited from proprietary designs and manufacturing processes.", "body_md": "An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple has reportedly sent legal letters to dozens of former Apple employees now working at OpenAI, telling them to preserve potentially relevant documents and communications as it continues to pursue its trade secret lawsuit against the AI company. The Financial Times (paywalled) reports that Apple has targeted around 40 former employees with legal preservation letters, acting on its belief that the alleged misappropriation of confidential information may extend beyond the individuals named in its original complaint.\nThe development follows Apple's lawsuit filed last week against OpenAI, in which the company alleges a coordinated effort to obtain confidential information relating to its hardware engineering and product development. Apple claims OpenAI recruited key engineers, including former Apple executives Tang Tan and Chang Liu, and benefited from proprietary designs, manufacturing processes, and other trade secrets. Tan is OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and a 24-year Apple veteran who led product design, while Liu is on the hardware team at OpenAI after working as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple.[Read more of this story](https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/07/17/1552258/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed) at Slashdot.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees", "canonical_source": "https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/07/17/1552258/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed", "published_at": "2026-07-17 16:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-17 16:52:15.270109+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["Apple", "OpenAI", "Tang Tan", "Chang Liu", "MacRumors", "Financial Times"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-sends-legal-letters-to-dozens-of-openai-employees.jsonld"}}