OpenAI publicly responds to Apple's trade-secret lawsuit
OpenAI called Apple's suit 'careless, aggressive and oddly personal,' published emails and iMessages disputing its account, and asked a court to dismiss the case.
- Courts & copyright
- Minor
OpenAI published a public rebuttal, “Apple is getting this wrong”, responding to Apple’s July lawsuit accusing the company of misappropriating hardware trade secrets. OpenAI called the suit “careless, aggressive and oddly personal” and said it had “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.”
The post disputed specific factual claims in Apple’s complaint. Apple had said it raised concerns in an unanswered February 2026 letter before suing; OpenAI said Apple’s outside counsel had in fact emailed the wrong person, confusing two Asian surnames, and published the email chain along with an apology from Apple’s own counsel for the mix-up. On the allegation that former Apple engineer Chang Liu improperly retained confidential files, OpenAI published iMessage exchanges it said showed Apple employees repeatedly asking Liu, after his departure, for help locating files and technical information — including one instance of directing a colleague to AirDrop material from Liu’s Apple-linked iCloud account.
OpenAI followed the blog post with a formal motion asking a US judge to dismiss the case, arguing in a court filing that Apple had not adequately specified what information it claimed as trade secrets or shown that it had taken steps to protect it. The filing also argued that Apple’s own security practices undercut its case, noting that an Apple manager had remained logged into Liu’s personal iCloud account after he left the company. Apple’s suit remained pending; no court had ruled on the merits of either side’s account.