Apple has asked a U.S. federal court to issue a preliminary injunction against OpenAI and two former Apple engineers, significantly escalating a legal battle over proprietary hardware designs and artificial intelligence devices.
The iPhone maker Tech giant last month sued OpenAI and the two former employees, both now working for OpenAI, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT-owner’s foray into consumer hardware, a dramatic escalation of already simmering tension between the two companies.
Apple filed a concurrent motion on Monday seeking expedited discovery, including production of documents relating to the defendants’ alleged access of Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information.
The underlying lawsuit initially filed in July accuses OpenAI of poaching key talent including Liu, a former senior electrical engineer, and Tan, a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch) and leveraging stolen trade secrets to fast-track its own consumer hardware lineup, such as ambient AI devices and screen-free speakers
Liu is a former Apple senior system electrical engineer while Tan is Apple’s former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch.
Apple also sought depositions from corporate representatives of OpenAI and io Products, which is OpenAI’s commercial arm and is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction,” it said in a filing.
“Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets,” OpenAI said in a blogpost late on Monday.
Apple’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, comes after OpenAI successfully fended off a legal challenge from Elon Musk’s xAI.
The lawsuit sets up a battle over the control of future AI devices that may not use traditional apps or operating systems or devices which, if successful, would direct consumer attention away from Apple’s best-selling iPhone. Analysts believe OpenAI is working on a phone or other device of its own.
