OpenAI Fires Back At Apple Over Trade Secret Lawsuit

At WWDC 2024, it looked like Apple and OpenAI's relationship couldn't be stronger. At the time, Apple announced that it would be integrating OpenAI's ChatGPT into Siri to help Apple catch up in an AI race that had seemingly passed it by. The partnership between the two companies, however, never lived up to expectations. Apple's implementation of ChatGPT was somewhat stunted and didn't do much to make Siri more usable, a dynamic that had OpenAI contemplating taking legal action against the Cupertino-based company.

However, Apple beat OpenAI to the punch. This past July, Apple sued OpenAI with a litany of sensational claims. At the core, the Cupertino company alleges that OpenAI purposefully misappropriated some of Apple's most valuable trade secrets to help bolster its upcoming line of AI-based hardware products. Apple's lawsuit also alleges that a former Apple employee who later joined OpenAI used his Apple-issued laptop to access sensitive information even after leaving the company. On Tuesday, OpenAI responded to Apple's allegations in the form of a blog post, not a legal filing.

One of Apple's initial claims said that it contacted OpenAI in February of 2026 about its concerns regarding OpenAI using confidential Apple information, and OpenAI failed to respond. OpenAI claims that Apple's legal team contacted the wrong person "after confusing two Asian last names." So from OpenAI's perspective, they had absolutely no idea that Apple had concerns about trade secret theft until the day the lawsuit was filed.

OpenAI's response notes that the former Apple employee who accessed sensitive Apple information did so at the behest of a current Apple employee. The post reads in part: "Apple accuses Chang Liu of accessing Apple confidential information after leaving the company, but only now admits that Apple employees reached out to him and asked for his help to locate this information." OpenAI claims it tried to address Apple's concerns behind the scenes but that Apple wasn't interested, and that it didn't have or want any of Apple's trade secrets.

It's worth noting, though, that OpenAI's response seemingly glances over many of Apple's more serious accusations. For one, the blog post doesn't reference the allegation that it tricked an Apple supplier into showing them a metal-finishing technique. Additionally, it casually dismisses the allegation that a former Apple employee who now works at OpenAI encouraged interviewees from Apple to download and bring in proprietary information about Apple products.

Curiously, OpenAI's defense to this claim is simply the implication that the employee in question formerly worked at Apple and would never do anything to harm his old company. Put simply, OpenAI's blog post did a great job of garnering headlines but didn't do much to diminish the severity of Apple's claims.

Meanwhile, Apple filed a motion on Monday asking a court for a preliminary injunction that would preclude OpenAI, and two former employees specifically, from accessing or using any of Apple's trade secrets. Apple also appears eager to get things moving as quickly as possible, asking the court for expedited discovery so that it can look at relevant documents and internal communications from OpenAI. Apple also wants to start scheduling depositions for some of the listed defendants.

Its motion notes that it will be "irreparably harmed" without a permanent injunction because it would allow OpenAI to develop and release products bolstered by Apple's confidential trade secrets. What's particularly interesting is that Apple laid out five conditions under which it would agree to not seek an injunction, including no future access or soliciting of such information, halt any existing access, use or soliciting efforts, preserve relevant evidence, permit Apple's lawyers and outside forensic experts to examine OpenAI's devices and accounts, and allow searches of OpenAI network locations where Apple data may have resided. OpenAI agreed to the former three, but not the latter two.

For now, OpenAI's response to Apple is a bit odd and suggests an interest in swaying public opinion before legal proceedings ramp up. Also noteworthy is that the firm representing OpenAI is Quinn Emanuel, a powerhouse legal firm that famously defended Samsung when Apple sued it for patent infringement over a decade ago.