OpenAI says Apple's own security practices hurt its lawsuit

OpenAI’s motion to dismiss Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit, along with newly filed exhibits, lays out the AI company’s legal defense strategy. Rather than disputing whether former Apple employees now at OpenAI accessed certain information, OpenAI argues that Apple’s own security practices and offboarding procedures weaken its claim that the information qualifies as legally protected “trade secrets.”

Apple’s complaint, filed in July, accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to obtain confidential hardware information from former Apple engineers. This week, Apple asked the court to expedite discovery, saying its internal investigation indicates additional former employees may have participated in, or witnessed, the alleged theft of trade secrets.

In its motion, OpenAI argues that Apple allowed employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work and failed to properly revoke access after they left the company. It also submitted text message records showing that an Apple manager remained logged into the personal iCloud account of defendant and former Apple engineer Chang Liu after he left the company, using it to transfer files and later asking him for help with technical questions about Apple projects.

OpenAI also accuses Apple of omitting the consequences of its own “inexplicable information-management practices” from its original complaint, arguing the company failed to properly secure its systems when employees departed, creating confusion and unwanted access issues that Apple now characterizes as theft. While this can sound like a “the door was unlocked, so it wasn’t really stealing” defense, the argument is meant to bolster OpenAI’s case that former Apple employees were simply trying to assist their prior colleagues — and could also support the idea that the material wasn’t secured as an actual trade secret would be.

OpenAI further argues Apple hasn’t specified which “trade secrets” or confidential components were allegedly stolen, saying Apple instead refers to “generic categories of the product-development process—such as component manufacturing, product testing, vendor and supplier relationships, and distribution channels.”

The filing goes further, arguing Apple is using the lawsuit to slow OpenAI’s push into AI-powered hardware rather than focus on its own product plans. “OpenAI is building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple. OpenAI does have an interest in hiring the best engineers, inventors, developers and creators—many of whom have decided to leave Apple and to come to OpenAI, attracted by the innovative and exciting work the company is doing. Apple might not like that,” the motion reads, adding that Apple “should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products.”

Why it matters

The case tests how far a company’s own security and offboarding gaps can be used against it in a trade secrets claim — a defense strategy other AI companies hiring away rivals’ engineers may increasingly lean on.