OpenAI has filed a formal motion asking a U.S. federal judge to dismiss the trade secrets lawsuit brought by Apple, labeling the allegations as "meritless." The ChatGPT maker's legal strategy goes beyond simple denial, aggressively targeting Apple's internal security management and arguing that Cupertino failed to take reasonable steps to protect the very information it now claims were stolen.
The Defense: Generic Data and Lax Security
Court filings reveal that OpenAI argues Apple is mischaracterizing generic product development information as "trade secrets." The defense contends that Apple's offboarding processes and security protocols were so deficient that they effectively undermined the company's own claim to secrecy. To support this, OpenAI published chat logs suggesting that former employees were actually contacted by current Apple staff seeking help to locate confidential data after they had already departed.
Apple's Escalation and Third-Party Involvement
The conflict, which began in July 2026 with allegations that OpenAI poached executives to jumpstart its own consumer hardware ambitions, has widened. Apple is now seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the use of confidential data and has expanded its scope: beyond Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, Apple suspects 11 other former employees may be involved. The investigation also extends to io, the hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive.
A Pattern of Legal and Security Pressure
This legal battle coincides with a period of intense scrutiny for OpenAI. The company is currently facing demands from fifteen U.S. prosecutors to preserve evidence regarding the Hugging Face hacking incident and is navigating a landscape of admitted cyber incidents following the White House's introduction of its voluntary AI security framework.
The outcome of this litigation will likely set a critical precedent for the tech industry, defining the boundary between professional expertise and trade secret misappropriation as AI labs race to enter the hardware market.
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