OpenAI published internal emails and messages rebutting Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, saying the iPhone maker stayed silent for 5 months before suing two former employees.
Key Points:
- OpenAI posted a blog rebuttal calling Apple's trade secrets lawsuit careless, aggressive and oddly personal.
- Apple asked a federal judge Monday to bar two former employees and OpenAI from touching disputed material.
- OpenAI released iMessages showing Apple staff asked a departed engineer to help locate company files.
OpenAI Rebuttal Disputes Apple Email Claims
The rebuttal appeared overnight under the title "Apple is getting this wrong," signed by the company rather than a named executive. OpenAI called the case careless, aggressive and oddly personal, and said it fell short of the standards Apple built its reputation on.
Coverage of the post detailed how far the argument moves past the one-line statements OpenAI issued after the suit landed.
OpenAI wrote that Apple now admits its outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names. The company also said Apple conceded that a claimed discussion with general counsel Che Chang never took place, and that Apple had described itself as resolving any issues before it went quiet.
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Apple Injunction Bid Names Chang Liu, Tang Tan
Apple asked a federal judge on Monday to bar the two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, using or disclosing the disputed information. It also filed a concurrent motion seeking expedited discovery, including documents on how the defendants reached Apple systems. Apple told the court it will suffer irreparable harm if the judge declines to grant the request.
The filing named Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan for depositions, along with OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng and an unnamed former Apple worker who now works at the AI company. Liu served as a senior systems electrical engineer, while Tan ran product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.
OpenAI Defense Points To Apple System Access
OpenAI said Apple staff contacted Liu after his Jan. 22 departure and asked him to help locate files tied to their own ongoing projects. It argued the leftover access stems from Apple's offboarding process rather than any theft. OpenAI also defended Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple before joining the hardware team.
Both sides are fighting over a consumer device market Apple still controls. OpenAI bought Jony Ive's design startup io in a $6.5 billion deal last year, and it has since recruited Apple designers and engineers to build a product that may bypass phones entirely.
Apple sued on Jul. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, naming OpenAI, io Products, Liu and Tan.
The 41-page complaint accused OpenAI staff of pressing job candidates for unreleased product details and physical prototypes. OpenAI denied any interest in rival secrets that day, then said four days later that it had seen no evidence backing the claims.
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