OpenAI publicly rebuts Apple's trade-secrets suit after Apple seeks injunction

OpenAI has publicly rebutted Apple’s trade-secrets lawsuit, publishing internal messages it says undercut the claims, hours after Apple asked a federal court on Aug. 3 for a preliminary injunction.

Apple sued OpenAI, hardware startup io Products and two former Apple employees, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, on July 10 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (Apple Inc. v. Liu, case 5:26-cv-07078), alleging trade-secret misappropriation and breach of contract tied to unreleased hardware technology. Apple’s Aug. 3 motion seeks to bar the defendants from accessing, using or disclosing the disputed information, along with expedited discovery.

In a blog post titled “Apple is getting this wrong,” OpenAI said it does not have and does not want any Apple trade secrets, and called the lawsuit “careless, aggressive and oddly personal.”

To support that, OpenAI published iMessage and email exchanges it says show Apple employees repeatedly contacted Liu for help locating files after his Jan. 22 departure, including an exchange as late as March 5. OpenAI’s argument is that Apple’s own staff would not have sought his help if he had walked out with confidential material.

The messages are excerpts OpenAI chose to release, and no court has ruled on either side’s claims. Tan spent 24 years at Apple, including as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, before co-founding io Products with designer Jony Ive; the startup merged into OpenAI in July 2025. No hearing date on the injunction motion has been set.