OpenAI Posts Public Rebuttal to Apple's Trade Secrets Lawsuit

OpenAI published a public rebuttal to Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, calling it 'careless, aggressive and oddly personal,' after Apple sought a preliminary injunction against OpenAI and two former employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan. OpenAI released internal emails and iMessage exchanges showing Apple employees asked Liu for help locating files after his January 22 departure, and disputed Apple's account of pre-litigation contact, saying Apple's counsel emailed the wrong person in February. Apple's lawsuit, filed July 10, alleges Liu and Tan funneled confidential product information to OpenAI's hardware business, and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.

Apple has asked a federal judge for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI as its trade secrets lawsuit escalates, and OpenAI responded hours later with a detailed public rebuttal that includes internal messages and legal correspondence. Reuters reports https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/apple-seeks-preliminary-injunction-against-openai-trade-secrets-case-2026-08-04/ that Apple yesterday filed a motion seeking to bar OpenAI and two former employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan, from accessing, using, or disclosing its alleged confidential information, along with a request for expedited discovery. "Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction," the company said in its filing. Apple originally sued OpenAI https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai/ on July 10, alleging that former Apple engineer Liu and former Apple design executive Tan ran a scheme to funnel confidential product information to OpenAI's hardware business. OpenAI has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/14/openai-apple-lawsuit-response/ , saying it has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets." Late on Monday evening, OpenAI published a blog post titled " Apple is getting this wrong https://openai.com/index/apple-is-getting-this-wrong/ ," calling the lawsuit "careless, aggressive and oddly personal." The company disputes Apple's account of its pre-litigation contact, saying Apple's outside counsel emailed the wrong person in February after confusing two Asian last names, and published the underlying email chain showing the mix-up, along with an apology from Apple's counsel. OpenAI says it heard nothing further about the specific allegations for five months before Apple filed suit. OpenAI published iMessage exchanges it says show Apple employees repeatedly asking Liu for help locating files and technical information after his January 22 departure, including directing a colleague to AirDrop files from his Apple-linked iCloud https://www.macrumors.com/guide/icloud/ account. The same messages show an Apple employee still asking Liu about internal files as late as March 5, with another participant in the thread calling the exchange "highly irregular." OpenAI also defended Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple before joining io Products https://www.macrumors.com/2025/07/09/openai-jony-ive-io-acquisition-complete/ , the hardware startup he co-founded with Jony Ive, which merged with OpenAI in July 2025. "Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies," OpenAI said. Apple's complaint claims more than 400 former Apple employees https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/24/the-macrumors-show-can-openai-beat-the-iphone/ now work at OpenAI. A hearing on Apple's injunction request has not yet been scheduled. This article, " OpenAI Posts Public Rebuttal to Apple's Trade Secrets Lawsuit https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/04/openai-posts-public-rebuttal-to-apple/ " first appeared on MacRumors.com https://www.macrumors.com Discuss this article https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/openai-posts-public-rebuttal-to-apples-trade-secrets-lawsuit.2486398/ in our forums