OpenAI says Apple's own security practices undermine its trade secrets case

OpenAI's motion to dismiss Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, along with newly filed exhibits, reveals the company's legal defense strategy: rather than disputing whether former Apple employees now at OpenAI accessed certain information, OpenAI argues that Apple's own security practices and offboarding procedures weaken its claim that the information qualifies as legally protected trade secrets.

Apple's complaint, filed in July, accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to obtain confidential hardware information from former Apple engineers. This week, Apple asked the court to expedite discovery, saying its internal investigation indicates some additional former employees may have participated in, or witnessed, the alleged theft.

In its motion, OpenAI argues that Apple allowed employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work and failed to properly revoke access after they left the company. It also submitted text message records showing that an Apple manager remained logged into the personal iCloud account of defendant and former Apple engineer Chang Liu after he left the company to transfer files, and later asked him for help with technical questions about Apple projects.

OpenAI also accuses Apple of omitting the consequences of its own inexplicable information-management practices from its original complaint, noting that the company failed to properly secure its systems when employees departed, creating confusion and unwanted access issues that Apple now characterizes as theft.

OpenAI argues Apple hasn't specified which trade secrets or confidential components were allegedly stolen, referring to them instead as generic categories of the product-development process — such as component manufacturing, product testing, vendor and supplier relationships, and distribution channels.

The filing also suggests Apple is using the lawsuit to slow down a competitor innovating in AI-powered hardware. OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets, the motion argues, adding that the company is building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple and is simply hiring the best engineers, many of whom chose to leave Apple.

The dispute sits at the intersection of two intensifying rivalries: talent and AI-powered hardware. Apple portrays OpenAI's hiring of its engineers as theft of confidential information, while OpenAI casts the lawsuit as a pretextual response to Apple's shortcomings in the market for talent.

The next milestone is whether the court grants Apple's request to expedite discovery, and what new evidence emerges from both sides. The outcome could shape how aggressively AI companies recruit hardware talent and how courts treat corporate secrecy claims in the AI era.