Apple opposes OpenAI bid to dismiss trade secret lawsuit

Apple urged a federal judge on Wednesday to reject OpenAI’s motion to dismiss a trade secrets lawsuit, arguing in a 32-page opposition brief that the artificial intelligence company’s defense rests on “distortion, speculation, and improper extrinsic evidence.” The filing, submitted on August 19, escalates the legal battle initiated by Apple in July, which accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to obtain confidential product information from former Apple employees who later joined OpenAI. Apple claims more than 400 of its ex-employees now work at OpenAI.

Apple’s brief restates its core allegations against two individuals: former engineer Chang Liu and OpenAI hardware chief Tan Yew Tan. Regarding Liu, Apple alleges he exploited a “rare authentication bug” to access Apple’s network storage weeks after joining OpenAI and proceeded to download dozens of confidential engineering files. These files included a presentation on the manufacturing and testing of main logic boards. Apple contends this was not accidental syncing but deliberate theft, citing messages in which Liu reportedly celebrated the discovery with a laugh.

As for Tan, Apple repeats its claim that he used internal Apple...