Apple has asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, a move that would block the ChatGPT maker from developing any device or product built on Apple’s confidential technology. The request is a new step in the OpenAI trade secrets dispute Apple opened earlier this year, and it comes alongside a claim that more former Apple staff may be tied to the alleged theft.
In a filing this week, Apple asked for expedited discovery from two former employees named in the original complaint: senior systems engineer Chang Liu and Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan. The request also targets OpenAI, its foundation, and io, the hardware startup co-founded by Apple’s former lead designer Jony Ive. OpenAI acquired io in 2025 in a deal reported to be worth billions, folding its hardware team into OpenAI’s own product efforts. Apple says its investigation has since identified 11 additional former employees who may have acted as witnesses or otherwise played a role, beyond Liu, Tan, and OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng, who was also named earlier in the case.
What the new filing in the OpenAI trade secrets case alleges
Apple’s filing describes specific instances it says point to a wider pattern of information sharing. “For example, another former Apple employee seems to have met with Mr. Liu and Ms. Peng in advance of Ms. Peng’s interview at OpenAI and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products,” the filing states. It adds that “yet another former Apple employee took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before an interview at OpenAI.”
Apple also claims that after it filed the original complaint, several former employees now working at OpenAI contacted the company to return Apple-issued devices they had kept after leaving. Apple says this pattern gives it reasonable grounds to believe more people were involved than those already named, and it wants the court to grant expedited discovery so it can question the additional witnesses before its motion for a preliminary injunction is decided.
OpenAI calls the request unnecessary
OpenAI responded publicly in a blog post, arguing that Apple’s push for an injunction is “both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets.” The company added, “we’re much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier.”
OpenAI also revisited earlier missteps it says Apple made during the dispute, including an email Apple sent to the wrong recipient after mixing up two similar surnames. The company further alleges that Apple was not truthful about internal discussions involving its general counsel. OpenAI says Apple has not acknowledged that “residual access,” which let former employees continue reaching Apple systems after they left, resulted from gaps in Apple’s own security procedures rather than any wrongdoing on OpenAI’s part.
Neither company has said when a judge might rule on the injunction request. Until then, both sides continue to trade filings in a case that has grown from two named former employees to a group that now, according to Apple, numbers well over a dozen.