OpenAI moves to dismiss Apple trade-secrets suit as 'pretextual'

OpenAI on Wednesday asked a federal judge to throw out Apple's July trade-secrets lawsuit, and the language of the filing is the interesting part. According to Bloomberg, the company called the suit 'baseless and pretextual' and told the court it has 'no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets.' Axios reports that variations of the word 'fail' appear nearly 50 times across the 31-page motion, which frames the case as Apple's attempt to paper over its own AI shortcomings rather than a real misappropriation claim.

Apple's original complaint, filed in July, named two former employees alongside OpenAI, io Products, and the OpenAI corporate entities. CNBC covered the allegations, which include a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, Tang Yew Tan, using Apple's confidential project code names during OpenAI's recruiting process and asking job candidates to bring Apple hardware components to interviews. The suit also claims over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, and points at OpenAI's $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive's io Products as the vehicle for its consumer hardware push.

OpenAI's counter has two prongs. One is the innovator framing, that it 'is building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple' and simply wants the best engineers regardless of prior employer. The other is more surgical: the motion argues Apple reviewed personal iMessages left on company devices and encouraged employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work, blurring the corporate and personal data line that a trade-secrets case usually depends on.

The honest caveat is that a motion to dismiss is exactly what you would expect at this stage, and the rhetoric on both sides is doing a lot of work. What the reporting does not give you is what the judge is likely to prioritize when weighing Apple's specific factual claims about recruiting conduct against OpenAI's iCloud-commingling defense, or how discovery might change the picture if the case survives. What is clear is the strategic story underneath: the ex-Apple pipeline into OpenAI's hardware effort is now a courtroom issue, and every large AI lab hiring from a legacy incumbent is watching how this one shakes out.