Apple Widens OpenAI Trade Secret Case to 11 More Ex-Staff

The lawsuit Apple filed against OpenAI in July just got considerably bigger. In a filing on August 4, Apple told the court its investigation now reaches beyond the two former employees originally named: 11 more ex-Apple staff have been identified as witnesses or persons of interest. The company is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would bar OpenAI from developing an "AI device or other products based on Apple technology" while the case plays out.

Who is in the file

The case centers on Chang Liu, a senior systems engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former senior hardware executive, both of whom left Apple for OpenAI. Apple claims they took confidential material with them. The new filings go further: according to Apple, another former employee took screenshots of confidential documents describing an unannounced Apple product before departing.

The injunction request is the sharpest tool in the filing. If granted, it could effectively stall OpenAI's hardware program, the device effort it has been running with former Apple design chief Jony Ive, until the dispute is resolved.

OpenAI answers in public, not just in court

Rather than confining its response to legal briefs, OpenAI published a blog post on August 3 titled "Apple is getting this wrong." Its core claim fits in one sentence: "We don't have Apple's trade secrets, and we don't want them." The company also submitted chat logs it says show current Apple employees repeatedly texting their former colleague unprompted, an attempt to establish that information was flowing in both directions.

Underneath the legal maneuvering sits a broader tension. OpenAI has hired a steady stream of Apple hardware and design talent over the past year, while Apple's own generative AI push has struggled to gain momentum. Talent movement between rivals has become one of the most contested fronts of the AI race.

The lesson hiding in a giant's lawsuit

Strip away the billion-dollar stakes and this is a story about a risk every company carries: what leaves the building when an employee does. Most businesses rely on a signed NDA and good faith; few maintain an actual offboarding checklist that revokes repository access, shared drives, and API credentials on day one. Apple, famous for secrecy bordering on obsession, is now arguing in court that its controls were not enough. If your company's departure process is an email to IT "when someone gets a chance," this case is a well-funded preview of how that can end.

Sources: TechCrunch, OpenAI