Apple’s new legal move adds a fresh chapter to the tech giant’s fight to protect its intellectual property. In a filing Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California saw Apple allege that OpenAI, a California AI start‑up, and its former employees engaged in a “pattern of theft” of Apple’s confidential product development data.
The suit names two ex‑Apple engineers who allegedly shared internal documents via e‑mail, and claims that interview tactics used by OpenAI’s hiring team—such as asking prospective hires to bring Apple hardware as “props”—enabled the company to dig deeper into unreleased products and proprietary manufacturing processes.
Apple also accuses its acquired design startup io Products—founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive—as a conduit for the stolen information. “This entire set of actions is a strategy to extract Apple’s confidential information and build a nascent hardware business on the shakiest foundations,” Apple said.
OpenAI’s spokesman Drew Pusateri has rejected the allegations, describing the company’s focus as building technology that empowers people worldwide. “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” Pusateri told the BBC.
Beyond the injunction, Apple seeks unspecified damages and has highlighted prior attempts to discuss its concerns with OpenAI in February, which the company reportedly ignored. The lawsuit arrives even as Apple’s outgoing CEO Tim Cook steps down, and as OpenAI plans to release its first hardware product—a keyboard integrated with its AI tools—later this month.
