Apple's lawsuit filed in month 7 (July) accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets has seen new progress: a federal judge ruled that Apple can quickly obtain OpenAI's hiring-related materials. Specifically, the court allowed it to review documents concerning "OpenAI's contact with Apple employees before interviews"—these applicants targeted positions in OpenAI's consumer hardware and robotics divisions, at a point in time just before the rumored launch of OpenAI's first hardware device. The relevant documents may cover interview checklists, guidelines, scripts, technical demonstrations, and records corroborating that "Apple technology or components were mentioned during interviews."
Presiding Judge Edward Davila ordered OpenAI to hand over the already organized materials within 5 days, with the remainder relevant to this request to be completed within 14 days; he also approved Apple's acquisition of private LINE chat records of people relevant to the case, involving OpenAI employees Liu Chang and Peng Ailisha, and ordered out-of-court depositions of the two, along with hardware chief Deng Yaotan (all three came from Apple).
The theft allegations directly target chips and drawings, while some requests were blocked
Apple's complaint is quite specific: it alleges that former Apple employees used company laptops to download confidential materials, including unpublished technical specifications, engineering demonstrations, and proprietary project data; what's more, former Apple employees who had joined OpenAI were accused of "coaching" prospective job jumpers, telling them what information to bring to pass interviews. Against this backdrop, OpenAI is developing consumer hardware that could rival the iPhone, which is the root of Apple's anxiety.
However, the judge did not accept everything: Apple's request to quickly obtain specific R&D materials such as metal surface treatment and power management was denied, and broader hardware research materials and "output produced by former Apple employees after joining" were also rejected. Davila left the door open—Apple may narrow the scope and resubmit, so this trade secret tug-of-war is clearly set to continue.