Apple Files Trade Secret Lawsuit Against OpenAI: "Former Employees Stole Technology"

Two Former Employees and Jony Ive's io Also Named as Defendants
Apple Alleges Leaks of Confidential Unreleased Product and Manufacturing Process Information

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, alleging that the company misappropriated its trade secrets through former Apple employees.

On July 10 (local time), Apple filed a trade secret infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against OpenAI, two former Apple employees, and the hardware company 'io', which was founded by Jony Ive, former Chief Design Officer (CDO) of Apple.

The defendants include Tang Yu Tan, who worked at Apple for 24 years before joining OpenAI as Chief Hardware Officer (CHO), and Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer at Apple.

Apple Store Gangnam, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang

Apple claims that after Liu joined OpenAI in January, he failed to return his Apple work laptop, accessed internal storage, and downloaded dozens of confidential files related to unreleased product information and circuit board manufacturing. The company also alleges that prior to his resignation, CHO Tan transferred internal documents containing supply chain and industry trend information to his personal email.

According to Apple, as a result, OpenAI has unlawfully used the company's intellectual property (IP), including hardware engineering specifications and manufacturing processes for products such as iPhone, Apple Watch, and MacBook, as well as supply chain strategies—assets developed over decades with investments amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Apple further claims that during the OpenAI recruitment process, CHO Tan requested internal information and physical parts from current Apple employees and instructed newly hired employees to conceal their intention to move to OpenAI, telling them to remain at Apple as long as possible. The complaint also states that Tan approached partner companies as if he had Apple's authorization to acquire technologies such as metal finishing techniques.

Apple has requested the court to order the defendants to cease use of the relevant trade secrets, destroy all related materials, and pay damages.

 

The defendant io is a company founded by Jony Ive, who oversaw the design of the iPhone and MacBook. It was acquired by OpenAI last year. As OpenAI pursues the development of its own artificial intelligence (AI) devices, the likelihood of direct competition with Apple in the hardware market is increasing.

Apple and OpenAI established a partnership in 2024 by integrating ChatGPT with Apple's AI system, Apple Intelligence. However, the relationship between the two companies has shifted toward competition, as Apple adopted Google Gemini for its voice assistant Siri, and OpenAI expanded its hardware business by acquiring io.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.