OpenAI Seeks Dismissal of Apple Trade Secrets Lawsuit, Releases Employee Communications as Evidence

Aug 6, 2026

OpenAI has asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, which accuses the AI company and former employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan of stealing hardware secrets. OpenAI argues that Apple's claims are a pretext to cover up its own failures in AI integration and talent retention. To counter Apple's bid for a preliminary injunction, OpenAI published internal communications and text messages, arguing that any residual data access was due to Apple's own offboarding flaws.

OpenAI dismissal motion filed

▪OpenAI argued in its dismissal motion that Apple's complaint fails to sufficiently describe the information for which it claims trade secret protection.
▪OpenAI filed a 31-page motion on August 5, 2026, asking a U.S. federal judge to dismiss Apple's trade secrets lawsuit.
▪OpenAI asserted in its legal filing that Apple is using a pretextual lawsuit to compensate for its shortcomings in retaining talent and integrating artificial intelligence into its products.

Apple trade secret allegations

▪Apple sued OpenAI, former Apple engineer Chang Liu, former design executive Tang Tan, and io Products in July 2026, alleging trade secret misappropriation.
▪Apple filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on August 3, 2026, to block OpenAI and named employees from accessing or disclosing Apple's confidential information.

Former employee recruitment claims

▪More than 400 former Apple staff members have migrated to join OpenAI as both companies compete to build artificial intelligence hardware.
▪Apple's lawsuit alleges that OpenAI's recruiting process systematically encouraged prospective hires to bring sensitive Apple materials to accelerate OpenAI's consumer hardware efforts.

Data access dispute

▪Apple accused former Apple engineer Chang Liu of retaining a company laptop, exploiting an authentication bug, and downloading confidential engineering documents.
▪OpenAI published iMessage exchanges showing Apple employees asking Chang Liu for help locating files and transferring documents after his departure on January 22, 2026.
▪OpenAI argued that Apple's system design, which encouraged staff to use personal iCloud accounts for work, caused residual data access for departing employees.

OpenAI-Apple correspondence conflict

▪OpenAI published a blog post on August 3, 2026, claiming Apple's outside counsel mistakenly emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names.
▪OpenAI stated that Apple falsely claimed to have had a discussion with OpenAI General Counsel Che Chang before filing the lawsuit.

Codex Micro hardware release

▪OpenAI released its first hardware product, a keyboard to access artificial intelligence agents called Codex Micro, in July 2026.
▪OpenAI partnered with Montreal-based company Work Louder to develop and manufacture the Codex Micro hardware device.