- OpenAI says Apple’s February outreach did not detail the allegations in its July lawsuit and included an email mistakenly claiming Apple’s outside lawyer had spoken with OpenAI’s general counsel. [1] - Messages selected and published by OpenAI show Apple employees asking former engineer Chang Liu for help, but they also document copying files around his departure and do not resolve Apple’s allegations of later unauthorized downloads. [1][2] - Apple asserts federal trade-secret claims against Liu, Tang Tan, OpenAI and io Products, plus breach-of-contract claims against Liu and Tan. It seeks damages, return of its information and preliminary and permanent injunctions. [2] - The case concerns hardware secrets rather than the companies’ ChatGPT distribution agreement, but it adds strain to a relationship that places ChatGPT inside Siri and other Apple features while OpenAI develops its own consumer device. [3][4][5]
OpenAI has published messages and legal correspondence to challenge Apple’s trade-secret lawsuit, arguing that Apple employees asked a departed engineer for help locating information and that Apple did not present its eventual allegations during an earlier exchange between the companies.[1]
The August 3 response is OpenAI’s most detailed account since Apple sued on July 10. Apple alleges OpenAI, io Products, hardware chief Tang Yew Tan and engineer Chang Liu used confidential product, manufacturing and supplier information to accelerate OpenAI’s consumer-device program. The allegations are unproven, and no court has found the defendants liable.[2][5]
The messages complicate one allegation but do not dispose of the case #
OpenAI’s response focuses heavily on Liu, an electrical engineer who spent more than eight years working on the iPhone before joining OpenAI in January. Apple alleges that Liu retained an Apple laptop, used another employee’s authenticated computer and exploited an authentication bug to download dozens of confidential hardware files after leaving.[2]
OpenAI published a redacted selection of iMessages spanning Liu’s January 22 departure through March 5. Several show Apple employees asking him to locate files or answer questions related to their ongoing work. OpenAI says those exchanges undermine Apple’s portrayal of his post-departure activity.[1]
The records also contain details that do not clearly support OpenAI’s defense. Around Liu’s departure, participants discussed a file transfer too large for a 64-gigabyte drive, said files were “still copying” and restarted an AirDrop transfer. Liu asked a colleague to transfer files from his Apple iCloud folder and later said the colleague could keep the account connected for files, while warning that messages from his new company might appear on the laptop. On March 5, another participant called Liu’s involvement in an Apple work thread “highly irregular” and asked to be removed.[1]
The messages were selected, redacted and published by OpenAI; they are not a complete discovery record and have not been tested in court. They may provide context for why Liu communicated with Apple staff, but they do not establish which files he later accessed, whether the access was authorized or whether information reached OpenAI’s hardware operation. Apple says server records show Liu exploited a previously unknown bug and downloaded information about unreleased products over several weeks.[1][2]
A mistaken email is now part of the dispute #
Apple’s complaint said it contacted OpenAI in February, asked the company to investigate whether Apple information was entering its business and received no response. OpenAI’s published correspondence shows Apple outside lawyer Gabriel Gross sent a February 23 letter to OpenAI General Counsel Che Chang, then mistakenly followed it with an email thanking Chang for a phone call that had actually involved a different recipient with the surname Wang.[1][2]
Gross apologized the following day and explained the error. Apple’s in-house counsel confirmed that Gross represented the company and directed further questions to his firm. OpenAI argues that the correspondence did not state the specific allegations later placed in the complaint and that Apple did not follow up before suing about five months later.[1]
The mistake makes the complaint’s description of the exchange incomplete. It does not determine whether trade secrets were taken, however. Apple’s case principally rests on alleged file access, recruiting instructions, supplier interactions and internal communications—not on whether outside counsel handled the February exchange correctly.[2]
Apple seeks restrictions on the use of disputed information #
Apple filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s San Jose Division under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act. Its complaint brings separate misappropriation claims against Liu, Tan, OpenAI and io Products, along with contract claims against Liu and Tan under intellectual-property agreements they signed as Apple employees.[2]
According to the complaint, the agreements bar employees from using or disclosing proprietary information during or after employment, require the return of Apple property and place related litigation in Santa Clara County. Apple alleges Liu and Tan violated those obligations through retained materials, post-employment access and the use of confidential information in recruiting and product development.[2]
Apple asks for compensatory and exemplary damages, recovery based on unjust enrichment or a reasonable royalty, legal fees, return of its information and preservation of evidence. It also seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions barring the defendants from acquiring, possessing, using or disclosing Apple trade secrets. The requested relief would not prohibit OpenAI from hiring Apple employees or developing independently created hardware.[2]
OpenAI says an injunction is unnecessary because it does not possess or want Apple trade secrets. It also defended Tan, saying he instructed the hardware team not to use confidential information from other companies. Apple, in its public statement when it filed the suit, said evidence suggested OpenAI employees had wrongfully taken information about unreleased Apple technologies, processes and products.[1][5]
Hardware rivalry sits beside a major distribution partnership #
The lawsuit is separate from Apple and OpenAI’s agreement to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, Writing Tools and other supported Apple features. Users can access the extension without a ChatGPT account, while subscribers can connect their accounts to use paid features.[3][4]
Apple says that for users who do not connect an account, IP addresses are obscured, OpenAI receives no information tied to an Apple Account, and OpenAI must not store requests or responses or use them to train its models, except where legally required. Those consumer-data rules are distinct from the corporate information at issue in the lawsuit, which concerns engineering documents, manufacturing methods, suppliers and unreleased hardware.[3][4]
The competitive overlap is distribution. Apple controls the operating-system features and permission prompts through which ChatGPT reaches Apple users. OpenAI’s planned device could give the model developer a direct consumer interface that is less dependent on Apple and other platform owners. That is a strategic inference from the companies’ respective products and plans, not a claim pleaded in Apple’s lawsuit.[3][4][5]
If Apple proves its information was misappropriated, an injunction in the form it requests could prevent OpenAI from using or retaining those materials. It would not, by itself, bar a device developed without Apple trade secrets. The factual question for the case is whether OpenAI’s hardware program benefited from protected information or from the lawful experience of employees who changed companies.
Companies mentioned #
Further sources #
[1] OpenAI, “Apple is getting this wrong,” including published iMessages and email … ↗ [2] Apple Inc. v. Chang Liu et al., Complaint for Trade Secret Misappropriation and… ↗
[[3] Apple, “ChatGPT Extension & Privacy,” describing current account, consent, data… ↗](https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/third-party-ai/)
[[4] OpenAI, “OpenAI and Apple announce partnership,” June 10, 2024. ↗](https://openai.com/index/openai-and-apple-announce-partnership/)
[[5] Associated Press, “Apple files lawsuit accusing ChatGPT maker OpenAI of stealin… ↗](https://apnews.com/article/apple-openai-lawsuit-trade-secrets-theft-6fff8833f5889d86406b89a02dd8fb16)
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