OpenAI says Apple’s own security practices undermine its trade secrets case
Quick Answer
OpenAI's defense against Apple's trade secrets lawsuit argues that Apple's lax security practices undermine its claims.
Quick Take
OpenAI highlights that former employees were not stealing but assisting, as Apple failed to secure sensitive information properly.
Key Points
- OpenAI claims Apple's security practices allowed unauthorized access to sensitive information.
- Apple's lawsuit alleges OpenAI orchestrated a scheme to steal confidential hardware details.
- OpenAI argues Apple has not specified which trade secrets were allegedly stolen.
- Apple's internal investigation suggests more former employees may have witnessed the alleged theft.
- OpenAI asserts it has no interest in Apple's trade secrets, focusing on its own innovations.
DeepSignal Analysis
What happened
OpenAI has filed a motion to dismiss Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, arguing that Apple's security practices undermine its claims. OpenAI contends that former Apple employees were not stealing information but rather assisting their colleagues, as Apple failed to secure sensitive data adequately.
Key evidence
- OpenAI claims that Apple allowed employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work and did not revoke access after they left, which undermines Apple's trade secrets argument.
- Apple's lawsuit, filed in July, alleges that OpenAI orchestrated a scheme to obtain confidential hardware information from former Apple engineers.
- OpenAI argues that Apple has not specified which trade secrets were allegedly stolen, referring instead to generic categories related to product development.
Why it matters
This case highlights the complexities of trade secrets in the tech industry, particularly regarding employee transitions between companies. OpenAI's defense strategy raises questions about the adequacy of Apple's security measures and whether they can legitimately claim trade secret protection. The outcome could influence how companies manage sensitive information and employee offboarding.
📖 Reader Mode
~3 min readOpenAI’s motion to dismiss Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit, along with newly filed exhibits, reveals the company’s legal defense strategy. Rather than focusing on whether former Apple employees working at OpenAI had accessed certain information, the AI company 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 some 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 to transfer files, and later asked 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, noting that 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 may sound a bit like a “the door was unlocked, so it wasn’t really stealing!” defense, this argument is meant to strengthen OpenAI’s argument that former Apple employees were simply trying to assist their prior colleagues. It could also help push the narrative that these weren’t truly trade secrets if they weren’t secured as such.
OpenAI argues Apple hasn’t specified which “trade secrets” or confidential components were allegedly stolen, referring to them instead as “generic categories of the product-development process—such as component manufacturing, product testing, vendor and supplier relationships, and distribution channels.”
OpenAI’s filing posits that Apple is using this lawsuit to slow down its competitor from innovating in AI-powered hardware, rather than focusing on its own product plans.
“OpenAI has no use, need or desire for Apple’s trade secrets,” the motion argues. “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,” it reads.
“…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,” the motion says.
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Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.
You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sarahp@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal.
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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