OpenAI claims a returned Apple employee took unreleased device files – Unite.AI

The OpenAI defendants in Apple Inc. v. Liu told a federal court on October 14, 2026, that a former OpenAI employee who returned to Apple after six months at OpenAI sent more than a hundred highly sensitive files on at least one unreleased OpenAI device to his personal accounts. The defendants asked the court for a case management approach that would allow OpenAI to investigate the conduct and, if necessary, make and prosecute counterclaims arising out of it.

Defendants OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, io Products LLC, and Tang Yew Tan filed as a supplement to the parties’ joint case management statement dated October 1, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and it was placed in the public docket on the same day. The supplement states that it is intended to alert the court to new facts relevant to the discussion of an appropriate case schedule at the October 14, 2026, case management conference.

What the supplement claims

According to the document, a recent and ongoing forensic investigation resulting from the lawsuit revealed that the former employee, who joined OpenAI from Apple, worked at OpenAI for six months, then returned to Apple and sent the files to his personal accounts. The document describes materials such as detailed images of the device or devices, highly confidential technical and manufacturing data, supplier information and design files, standards for cosmetic finishes, and reports regarding the coating and sealing of hardware components.

Some files were sent just after midnight in Singapore on June 2, 2026, the former employee’s last day at OpenAI, according to the document. OpenAI also says it understands that the former employee made a presentation about OpenAI’s product plans to senior Apple executives, including Apple’s vice president of operations in Asia, and that the presentation appears to have occurred months ago. In a footnote, the document says that Apple, armed with this information, is making a new push into AI-enabled products, citing Apple’s October 2026 announcement of its Home Collection smart home accessories and press coverage describing an Apple product called HomeView.

OpenAI’s concern and its request to the Court

In the supplement, OpenAI defendants say they are “very concerned that its trade secrets and confidential information are now circulating within Apple, where Apple engineers may shape upcoming Apple products based on OpenAI’s confidential and innovative work.” OpenAI raised these issues directly with Apple, the document states, and at the time of the filing Apple had not provided the assurances requested by OpenAI: that Apple does not possess and has not used OpenAI’s trade secret and confidential information.

Defendants request the opportunity, at the Case Management Conference on October 14, 2026, to discuss a case management approach that will allow OpenAI to investigate the described conduct and, if necessary, make and prosecute counterclaims arising therefrom.

The underlying cause

Apple filed its complaint on July 10, 2026, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract against Chang Liu, OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, Tang Yew Tan and io Products LLC, according to the case file. The case was later reassigned to Judge Edward J. Davila in the court’s San Jose division.

In the joint statement on its handling of the case, Apple said it is pursuing four lawsuits under the Defend Trade Secrets Act against Liu, Tan, OpenAI and io Products, along with breach of contract claims against Liu and Tan for allegedly violating Apple’s intellectual property agreements. Apple’s portion of the statement alleges that the defendants have misappropriated Apple’s trade secrets related to Apple’s hardware engineering and product design, manufacturing and industrial design, component technologies, testing, validation and development methodologies, and global supply chain, as OpenAI prepares to enter the consumer hardware business and launch its first hardware product.

The defendants’ portion of the statement alleges that OpenAI is developing a new family of devices designed for the age of artificial intelligence, has no need or desire for Apple’s trade secrets, and has developed its products independently, with safeguards intended to prevent employees, applicants and vendors from introducing another company’s confidential information into OpenAI. In an August 3, 2026 post responding to the lawsuit, OpenAI said that Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction was unnecessary because “we do not have, nor do we want, any of their trade secrets.”

The joint statement noted that the defendants had not yet responded to Apple’s complaint and reserved the right to file counterclaims against Apple. The parties exchanged initial disclosures on September 24, 2026. Both parties have requested a jury trial and anticipate 10 to 15 days of trial, and the defendants have proposed to be ready for trial by June 1, 2027, or, on a longer timetable, by October 2027.

Apple filed a preliminary injunction on August 3, 2026 and an expedited investigation on August 4, 2026, and requested leave to file a supplemental brief in support of the motion for an expedited investigation on August 31, 2026. Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint on August 5, 2026. After a status conference on September 14, 2026, the court continued hearing on those motions and the initial case management conference for October 14, 2026. On October 13, 2026, Judge Davila granted the expedited discovery motion in part, denied it in part, and deferred ruling in part, and vacated the October 14 motion hearing. The case management conference remains on the calendar and is the session where the OpenAI defendants now seek to make their new allegations.