Thought Leadership
In the legal dispute over trade secrets, Apple accuses a former employee and OpenAI of active destruction of evidence.
In the legal dispute over the alleged theft of trade secrets, Apple has presented new evidence in court against OpenAI and former Apple engineer Chang Liu. Following the examination of an old work laptop, Apple accuses its former employee of using confidential circuit schematics for hardware circuits directly in his current work for OpenAI. Additionally, Liu, together with an OpenAI colleague, allegedly made targeted attempts in June to erase digital traces after learning about the investigation.
While OpenAI had previously attributed the data access to inadequate rights administration on Apple’s part when employees depart, Apple contradicts this representation. Liu reportedly actively exploited a previously unknown authentication flaw to continue gaining access to internal systems.
Apple: Motion for preliminary injunction
In light of the new findings, Apple is seeking a court preliminary injunction to temporarily block OpenAI from the further development of hardware projects based on the Apple technologies in question. Furthermore, the corporation is requesting an expedited discovery process, as more than 400 former Apple employees have now transitioned to OpenAI and additional data leaks are feared.
“The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far—and it shows that Apple is not conducting investigations on suspicion, but that our trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed.”
Apple court documents
(Editorial Team)
