OpenAI has strongly rejected accusations made by Apple on trade secret misappropriation, telling a federal judge that the iPhone maker has failed to show that any proprietary assets were unlawfully taken. In a legal brief submitted to the US District Court in San Jose, California, the ChatGPT-maker asserted that the ongoing legal fight stems entirely from Apple’s own internal shortcomings.“This dispute is a mess of Apple’s own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else,” OpenAI stated in the court submission, as per news agency Reuters.Closing its filing, OpenAI argued that workers have every right to exit an established corporation struggling with AI integration to join an innovative venture developing cutting-edge products, adding that Apple cannot use its own sloppy internal procedures to turn lawful career moves into baseless legal claims.
Why Apple and OpenAI are in court
The legal action originated in July, when Apple filed a complaint targeting OpenAI as well as two former Apple engineers, Chang Liu and Tang Tan. Apple claimed the parties misappropriated proprietary data concerning hardware architecture, manufacturing logistics and supply-chain operations as the Sam Altman-led artificial intelligence (AI) company moves into physical consumer devices.OpenAI argued that Apple is leveraging litigation to stall an emerging rival and deter workforce attrition. Court filings reveal that OpenAI has recruited approximately 400 former Apple workers to support its consumer device initiatives. OpenAI highlighted that California labor statutes explicitly protect employee mobility between competing firms.
What Apple accused OpenAI of and what ChatGPT-maker said
In its initial filing, Apple asserted that OpenAI systematically targeted its workforce to uncover industrial intelligence, adding that Liu and Tan accessed restricted internal documents following their resignations. OpenAI pushed back, pointing out that Apple routinely urges its staff to utilise private iCloud setups for everyday business tasks. This approach creates severe overlap, making it challenging for exiting staff to disentangle personal digital records from corporate files.Furthermore, OpenAI criticised Apple’s standard exit protocol of instantly removing departing workers from facilities, noting that this practice fails to give staff adequate runway to surrender hardware, transfer operational projects or return data properly.The dispute comes two years after both the tech companies partnered with each other to expand ChatGPT’s reach and bolster Apple’s AI capabilities.
