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Tracker: Apple v. OpenAI Trade Secrets Lawsuit

Bot Mutiny |

A running timeline of Bot Mutiny's coverage of Apple's trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, former Apple employees and io Products: discovery orders, declarations and filings.

Apple sued OpenAI and others in July 2026, alleging a pattern of trade secret theft by former Apple employees now working at OpenAI. The case, Apple Inc. v. Chang Liu et al., No. 5:26-cv-07078-EJD, is before Judge Edward J. Davila in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and the defendants are Chang Liu, Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products, LLC. Apple's claims are allegations, OpenAI has denied them, the Guardian reported, and the court has not decided them.

Timeline

  • July 10, 2026: Apple sued, alleging, in the words of the court's order summarizing the complaint, "a pattern of trade secret theft by former Apple employees now working at OpenAI." Our report.
  • September 24, 2026: Defendant Chang Liu filed a redacted declaration responding to text messages Apple submitted with its reply on a preliminary injunction motion. Liu says he tried to restore an old iMac to factory settings under what he understood to be standard Apple procedure, not to remove a "forensic trail," and that he has never used or shared Apple confidential information or trade secrets for his work at OpenAI. A declaration is Liu's own account, not a court finding. Our report.
  • October 13, 2026: Judge Davila granted Apple's motion for expedited discovery in part and denied it in part, ordering the defendants to respond to a limited set of requests and allowing depositions of Liu, Tan and Alyssa Peng. Our report.
  • October 14, 2026: OpenAI told the court that a former employee who left Apple for OpenAI and then returned to Apple sent more than a hundred confidential files to personal accounts. Apple answered that as of October 12 it had been unable to locate any OpenAI confidential information. Judge Davila held hearings the same day, and the court took the motion to dismiss under submission. Our report.

What is still unknown

  • How the court will rule on the motion to dismiss, which it took under submission on October 14.
  • Whether OpenAI will file counterclaims. Its October 14 filing asked for a case management approach that would let it "if necessary, file and pursue counterclaims."
  • How the dispute between the parties' forensic experts about Liu's devices will be resolved. The court declined to weigh the competing findings on deletion or spoliation at the expedited discovery stage.
  • When a trial will happen. Both sides' filings list the trial date as "None Set." Counsel were to propose a schedule by October 23 that presumes a trial date of July 19, 2027, and the Guardian reported the case was likely to go to trial in October 2027, though OpenAI has said it could be ready as soon as June 2027.

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