Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft; Complaint Written With Apple Intelligence

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple Inc. filed suit in federal court Thursday against OpenAI, alleging the company directed more than 400 former Apple employees to carry confidential product designs, engineering blueprints and internal code names to their new employer — in some cases coordinated by OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple before departing in 2023.

The 87-page complaint was prepared with the assistance of Apple Intelligence, Apple's on-device AI suite, which routes user requests it cannot fulfill locally to ChatGPT via a direct integration with OpenAI's API.

Apple did not acknowledge this arrangement in the complaint. OpenAI's categorical denial was, a spokesperson confirmed, generated using GPT-4o.

The case centers on whether former employees retained trade secrets in their own memories — a standard courts have historically declined to enforce against individuals who simply know things. Apple is seeking damages and an injunction that would bar OpenAI from using any information its former employees may recollect about Apple products.

"We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere," said OpenAI Director of Strategic Communications Drew Pusateri, in a statement Apple's legal team received as a push notification on an iPhone.

"It's an unusual posture," said one intellectual property attorney not involved in the case. "Suing your API partner over employees who left years ago, using software that routes your drafts to your API partner. But I've seen weirder."