OpenAI Moves to Dismiss Apple Trade-Secrets Lawsuit, Calling It 'Pretextual'
Key Takeaways
- •OpenAI filed a 31-page motion to dismiss Apple's trade-secrets lawsuit, arguing the litigation is meant to obscure Apple's competitive weaknesses in AI and talent retention.
- •OpenAI published a blog post presenting iMessage evidence that Apple employees contacted former staffer Chang Liu for file assistance after he had already left the company.
- •Apple's outside lawyers allegedly sent a pre-suit email to the wrong recipient after confusing two Asian surnames, and Apple admitted no conversation with OpenAI's general counsel actually occurred.
- •Apple's lawsuit claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI and accuses the company of using internal Apple code names to solicit confidential information from job candidates.
- •Apple Foundation Models team lead Ruoming Pang departed for a Meta compensation package exceeding $200 million, highlighting the fierce competition for AI researchers across major tech firms.
OpenAI has asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple's trade-secrets lawsuit, arguing that the case is a pretextual attempt to conceal the iPhone maker's struggles with talent retention and AI product development. The dispute comes as Apple works to expand Apple Intelligence, its generative AI platform that began rolling out in late 2024 and is widely viewed as trailing offerings from OpenAI, Google, and others.
In a 31-page motion to dismiss filed Wednesday, OpenAI contends that Apple is using baseless litigation to compensate for its competitive shortcomings. The filing uses variations of the word "fail" approximately 50 times.
"Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products," the motion states.
Apple's lawsuit alleges that OpenAI and two former Apple employees — Chang Liu and Tang Tan — misappropriated confidential information and attempted to steal trade secrets during recruiting activities. Liu's last day at Apple was January 22, 2026. Tan is a design executive who spent more than 24 years at the company, according to OpenAI.
OpenAI's blog post counters Apple's claims
On August 3, OpenAI published a blog post titled "Apple is getting this wrong," in which the company presented evidence it says contradicts Apple's allegations.
OpenAI alleges it possesses iMessages between Liu and his former Apple colleagues in which Apple staff asked Liu to help locate files and complete data transfers after he had already left the company. One message from an Apple employee reportedly reads, "I found a 64GB drive. Do you think that will work," followed later by "Still copying."
OpenAI emphasizes that Liu was contacted by Apple staff, not the other way around, and characterizes his ongoing access to Apple systems as "residual access," noting that Apple does not always disable accounts when employees depart.
Regarding Tan, OpenAI states it instructed its team in clear terms not to use proprietary material from other companies.
Disputed pre-suit timeline
OpenAI's blog post also disputes Apple's account of the events leading up to the lawsuit. Apple claimed it reached out to OpenAI in February and received no response. OpenAI says Apple has since admitted that its outside lawyers sent an email to the wrong person after confusing two Asian surnames, and only acknowledged the error after OpenAI raised the issue.
Apple also claimed to have had a discussion with OpenAI's general counsel, but later acknowledged to OpenAI that no such conversation occurred, according to the filing. OpenAI further asserts that during earlier contact, Apple never raised the specific allegations now in the suit, at one point said it was "resolving any issues," and then went silent for five months before filing.
On Monday, Apple filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to bar OpenAI from using the disputed trade secrets while the litigation is pending. OpenAI describes the request as baseless and says it has no interest in Apple's trade secrets and does not possess any. The court will now weigh both OpenAI's motion to dismiss and Apple's injunction request, with the injunction potentially决定 whether OpenAI faces restrictions before the case proceeds to discovery.
Apple's lawsuit alleges that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI and that the company used internal Apple code names to solicit confidential information from job candidates. The scale of movement between the two companies underscores the intensity of the AI talent war, where firms including Meta, Google, xAI, and OpenAI have competed aggressively for researchers with expertise in large language models.
Apple has reportedly lost researchers from its Foundation Models team to Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and Cohere, including team lead Ruoming Pang, who departed for a Meta compensation package exceeding $200 million. Pang's team was responsible for the underlying models powering Apple Intelligence.
In July, Elon Musk publicly sided with Apple in the dispute, exchanging insults with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X.
