Apple wants a federal judge to let its trade secrets fight with OpenAI keep going, not end here.
Apple filed its opposition to OpenAI's motion to dismiss, arguing OpenAI's defense relies on "distortion, speculation, and improper extrinsic evidence." The company restates its core claims: former engineer Chang Liu allegedly exploited a rare authentication bug to access Apple's network storage weeks after joining OpenAI, downloading engineering files including a presentation on manufacturing and testing logic boards. Apple also repeats its allegation that OpenAI hardware chief Tan Yew Tan used internal Apple codenames to question interview candidates about unreleased products, and once asked an employee to bring components she had worked on, including batteries, chips, logic boards, and shields, to an OpenAI "show and tell" session. Apple argues all of this is a factual dispute for discovery, not a reason to toss the case now, and says it doesn't have to spell out its trade secrets in a public filing, citing a 2025 Ninth Circuit ruling in Quintara.
The sharpest move is procedural. OpenAI's own motion called an innocent explanation for Tan's codename questions "at least equally plausible" as Apple's account. Apple turns that concession around: under Ninth Circuit precedent, when two plausible explanations compete, the case survives dismissal instead of getting thrown out early. That clears a low bar. It says nothing about who actually wins once evidence gets produced.
This looks like the tech industry's long-running genre of talent-poaching litigation, echoing Waymo's suit against Uber a decade ago. With more than 400 former Apple employees reportedly now at OpenAI, expect this case to grind through discovery long before anyone proves an actual secret changed hands.