Apple adds more allegations to its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI

It claims a laptop proves that a former employee accessed and used proprietary files for the AI company.

Apple offered new evidence in support of its claims that OpenAI used trade secrets taken by former employees in support its new hardware business. As part of a push to obtain expedited discovery, Apple filed a support document that revealed information found on a MacBook laptop used by a former employee after he began working at OpenAI.

The filing centers on former Apple senior system electrical engineer Chang Liu. Apple's initial forensic investigation of a laptop Liu used after leaving the company alleges that the former employee knew he had access to Apple's third-party cloud storage and used it to download "dozens of confidential Apple files," including a circuit schematic. Apple further claimed that Liu used that schematic to run simulations in the course of his work for OpenAI. It claimed the laptop revealed previously unknown instances of stolen information, claiming that Liu "referred to using a tool and related software packages with names identical to proprietary internal engineering tools used at Apple."

The next arguments by Apple claim that, after learning that he was the subject of its internal investigation, Liu directed a coworker at OpenAI to "restore" any Apple-issued devices, which Apple claimed was a way to erase forensic evidence that could be used against him.

This is the latest salvo in a trade secret lawsuit Apple brought against OpenAI earlier this year. It requested expedited discovery earlier in August, upping the scope of its claims to include 11 former employees that it alleged shared trade secrets with OpenAI. The company responded that Apple's charges were "careless, aggressive and oddly personal," and has denied any wrongdoing.