OpenAI asks a federal judge to toss Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit, calling the claims a distraction from Apple’s own AI struggles.
Tech legal battles rarely get this blunt. OpenAI just asked a federal judge to throw out Apple’s high-stakes trade secrets lawsuit, and it did not hold back.
Apple sued OpenAI last month, accusing the ChatGPT creator and two former Apple employees of stealing hardware secrets to build consumer AI devices. But OpenAI called the lawsuit “baseless,” “pretextual,” and “rotten to its core” in a sharp motion to dismiss.
OpenAI argues that Apple uses litigation to cloak its own talent drain and slow AI development.
Top engineers leave Apple because they want to build cutting-edge tech at OpenAI. In its filing, OpenAI made its stance clear: it has no desire for Apple’s trade secrets because it is building something entirely new.
To make matters worse for Cupertino, OpenAI exposed basic clerical blunders by Apple’s legal team. Apple claimed OpenAI ignored early outreach, but records show Apple’s outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two similar last names. They even cited a phone call with OpenAI’s general counsel that never actually happened.
Apple has reason to feel nervous. As OpenAI hires veteran hardware leaders like Tang Tan, it threatens the iPhone’s dominance over future AI hardware. Yet weaponizing trade secret law to stop employee departures sets a dangerous precedent for Silicon Valley talent mobility.
Apple needs to build better AI products and give top talent a reason to stay rather than dragging former employees through court, as OpenAI does. The reality is competition drives innovation, but both tech giants should compete on product merit rather than courtroom maneuvers.
