Apple on the 10th (local time) filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and two former Apple employees who moved to OpenAI.
That day, Apple filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against OpenAI and two former Apple executives and employees for trade secret misappropriation and other claims.
In the complaint submitted, Apple claimed that the two former Apple employees who moved to OpenAI stole internal confidential information when they left.
Those named in the suit are Tang Yu Tan, OpenAI chief hardware officer (CHO), who worked at Apple for 24 years and served as vice president in charge of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, and Chang Liu, who worked at Apple for eight years as a senior systems electrical engineer.
Apple claimed that even after Chang Liu joined OpenAI in January, he did not return his Apple-owned work laptop and exploited an authentication vulnerability to access Apple's internal repositories, downloading dozens of confidential files, including undisclosed product information and circuit board manufacturing materials.
Apple also raised allegations that before leaving, CHO Tan siphoned off supply chain and industry summary documents to a personal email account.
Apple argued that, as a result, intellectual property (IP) such as hardware engineering specifications, manufacturing processes, and supply chain strategies, developed over decades with investments totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, was misappropriated by OpenAI.
In particular, Apple claimed that during hiring interviews at OpenAI, CHO Tan grilled Apple employees who wished to move about internal information and asked them to bring and show physical parts. The complaint also said that even after their move to OpenAI was decided, they were systematically instructed to conceal this fact and remain at Apple as long as possible.
Apple further alleged that they approached partners and, by making it seem as if they had Apple's permission, secured technologies such as metal finishing.
Apple said that at every level, from technical staff to the CHO, OpenAI stole Apple's trade secrets and confidential information, criticizing, "OpenAI's fledgling hardware business now rests on a rotten and unstable foundation that relies on illegally stolen trade secrets."
Apple said in the complaint that in Feb. this year it sent a letter expressing concern that its confidential information was being leaked to OpenAI and requesting discussions, but received no response.
Apple petitioned the court to order the immediate cessation of use and destruction of the misappropriated trade secrets and to award damages for the resulting harm.
The two companies formed a partnership in 2024 when Apple decided to integrate the ChatGPT model into its newly unveiled "Apple Intelligence."
But afterward, Apple chose Google's "Gemini" as the AI model to use for the voice assistant "Siri," and OpenAI acquired io, setting the stage for competition in the hardware market and straining the relationship.
Also named as a defendant in Apple's suit is io, the corporations founded by former Apple chief design officer (CDO) Jony Ive, who oversaw Apple's iconic design. Io was acquired by OpenAI last year.