OpenAI’s move to dismiss Apple’s trade secret lawsuit, along with newly filed exhibits, reveal the company’s legal defense strategy. Instead of focusing on whether former Apple employees who worked on OpenAI had access to certain data, the AI firm argued that Apple’s own security practices and exit procedures made the claim that the data qualified as “trade secrets.”
Apple’s complaint, filed in July, accuses OpenAI of organizing a program to obtain confidential hardware information from former Apple engineers. This week, Apple asked the court to expedite the discovery, saying its internal investigation indicated that some former employees may have participated in, or witnessed, the alleged theft of trade secrets.
In its motion, OpenAI argued that Apple allowed employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work and failed to properly revoke access after they left the company. It also sent text messages showing that Apple managers still logged into the personal iCloud account of the defendant and former Apple engineer Chang Liu after he left the company to transfer files, and later asked him for technical questions about Apple projects.
OpenAI also accuses Apple of ignoring the consequences of its own “inexplicable data management practices” from the original complaint, noting that the company could not properly maintain its systems when employees leave, creating confusion and unwanted access problems that Apple is now characterized by theft.
While this may sound like “the door was unlocked, so it wasn’t really stolen!” Defensively, this argument is meant to reinforce OpenAI’s argument that former Apple employees were only trying to help their former colleagues. It can also help boost the story because these aren’t really trade secrets if they aren’t guaranteed as such.
OpenAI argued that Apple did not specify which “trade secrets” or confidential components were stolen, referring to them instead as “general categories of product development processes – such as component manufacturing, product testing, vendor and supplier relationships, and distribution channels.”
OpenAI’s lawsuit claims that Apple is using this lawsuit to slow its competitors from innovating in AI-powered hardware, instead of focusing on its own product plans.
“OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple’s trade secrets,” the motion argues. “OpenAI is creating something new and different from anything at Apple. OpenAI is interested in hiring the best engineers, inventors, developers and creators – many of them have decided to leave Apple and come to OpenAI, which is attracted by the creative and exciting work that the company is doing. Apple may not like that,” it read.
“…Apple should not be allowed to use baseless and unwarranted lawsuits to make excuses
Deficiencies in the market for talent and retention of its employees, and its failure to integrate AI into its products,” the movement said.
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