OpenAI Rebuts Apple Injunction Bid With Internal Messages in Trade Secrets Fight
Updated
Updated · MacRumors · Aug 4
OpenAI Rebuts Apple Injunction Bid With Internal Messages in Trade Secrets Fight
3 articles · Updated · MacRumors · Aug 4
Summary
OpenAI answered Apple's preliminary injunction request within hours by publishing a blog post, emails and iMessages it says undercut the trade-secrets case against it and former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan.
February emails released by OpenAI show Apple's outside counsel contacted the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names, then apologized; OpenAI says Apple went silent on those allegations for five months before suing on July 10.
January-to-March iMessage exchanges posted by OpenAI show Apple employees still asking Liu after his Jan. 22 departure to help locate files and technical information, with one participant calling the requests "highly irregular."
Apple says it will suffer irreparable harm without an order barring OpenAI, Liu and Tan from accessing or disclosing confidential information, and it is also seeking expedited discovery; no hearing has been scheduled.
The clash has widened a high-stakes dispute over OpenAI's hardware ambitions after Tan's io Products merged with OpenAI in July 2025 and amid Apple's claim that more than 400 former Apple employees now work there.