Apple Says New Evidence Links Former Engineer to OpenAI Trade Secret Case

Apple has returned to court with new evidence in its legal fight involving OpenAI, arguing that a former employee took advantage of continued access to confidential company information after leaving Apple and later used some of that material while working for OpenAI.

The new claims centre on Chang Liu, a former Apple engineer who joined OpenAI. Apple said in a recent court filing that a forensic examination of Liu’s former Apple-issued MacBook uncovered evidence supporting its allegations. Apple says the MacBook contained evidence of a confidential circuit schematic being accessed and used after Liu left the company

Apple is now asking the court to take a closer look at what happened to its confidential information and whether other former employees may have been involved.

Apple points to a circuit design

According to Apple, Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic while working at OpenAI. The company also alleges that he used a tool whose name matched an internal Apple engineering application.

Apple says the evidence from Liu’s laptop is significant because it suggests that confidential Apple material remained accessible after he left the company.

The company has also alleged that Liu and another OpenAI employee, Yu-Ting Peng, took steps to destroy evidence in June after learning that Apple was investigating Liu's activities.

Those are Apple's allegations, not findings that have been established by the court.

The latest filing follows weeks of legal wrangling over Liu's former Apple laptop. Apple argues that examining the device has produced evidence of actual use of its confidential information rather than the speculative search OpenAI has accused it of conducting.

OpenAI disputes Apple's account

OpenAI has pushed back against Apple's claims.

The company has previously argued that Liu's continued access to Apple files was connected to helping former colleagues and that Apple itself was responsible for failing to remove his access properly after he left. OpenAI's response to Apple's allegations and its account of Liu's continued access

OpenAI has also argued that Apple's security and employee offboarding practices contributed to the continued access, rather than proving that Liu deliberately stole information for OpenAI.

Apple disputes that explanation. The company says Liu did not simply retain access because of an administrative oversight and instead alleges that he exploited an authentication vulnerability to access Apple's systems.

The competing accounts are now at the centre of the dispute.

Why Apple wants the court to intervene

Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction that would restrict OpenAI from developing hardware using Apple's alleged trade secrets while the case continues.

The company is also asking for expedited discovery, which would allow it to obtain evidence more quickly as it investigates what happened.

That request matters because Apple believes the case could involve more than one former employee. In an earlier filing, the company said more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, although that figure does not mean those employees are accused of wrongdoing.

The legal fight is therefore about more than one engineer. Apple is trying to establish how confidential information may have travelled with former employees and whether OpenAI benefited from it.

The bigger issue is employee access

The dispute also highlights a difficult problem for technology companies: what happens to sensitive information when employees move to competitors.

Large technology companies routinely compete for the same engineers, researchers and product specialists. Employees can leave with years of knowledge about internal systems and projects, while companies have to ensure that access to confidential files disappears when those employees depart.

In this case, Apple argues that Liu's continued access went beyond an ordinary administrative mistake. OpenAI says Apple's own security practices contributed to the situation.

For now, neither side has won that argument.

The court will ultimately have to assess the evidence and determine whether Apple's allegations justify the restrictions it is seeking.

Until then, the important distinction is this: Apple says it has uncovered evidence of trade-secret misuse; OpenAI disputes the company's account. The latest filing makes the dispute more serious, but it does not by itself establish that OpenAI stole Apple's technology.