OpenAI's defense against Apple's trade secrets lawsuit blames Apple's own lax security

[UniversalAidan73]

OpenAIs legal strategy in Apples trade secrets lawsuit just got a lot clearer through newly filed court exhibits, and the approach is genuinely interesting, rather than denying former Apple employees accessed certain information, OpenAI is arguing Apples own security practices were so lax that the information never legally qualified as a protected trade secret in the first place

Apples original complaint, filed in July, accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to obtain confidential hardware information from former Apple engineers, and Apple has since asked the court to expedite discovery, claiming its internal investigation suggests even more former employees may have participated in or witnessed the alleged theft

OpenAIs motion argues Apple allowed employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work purposes and then failed to properly revoke access after those employees left the company, and they submitted actual text message records showing an Apple manager stayed logged into former engineer Chang Lius personal iCloud account after he departed, using it to transfer files and even asking him for help with technical questions about ongoing Apple projects

That last detail is honestly the most damaging one in the filing, an Apple manager reportedly reaching out to a former employee through his own personal account for help with Apple technical questions genuinely undercuts the picture of tightly controlled confidential information that Apples lawsuit depends on

OpenAI is also pushing back on how vague Apples claims are, arguing Apple hasnt actually specified which trade secrets were stolen and instead refers only to generic categories like component manufacturing, product testing, vendor relationships and distribution channels, which OpenAI says isnt specific enough to constitute an actual legally protectable trade secret claim

The most pointed line in the filing argues Apple is using a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to compensate for its own failures in the market for AI talent and its struggles integrating AI into its products, which is a genuinely aggressive framing that shifts the entire narrative from OpenAI stealing secrets to Apple failing to retain the engineers it needed

OpenAI says Apple's own security practices undermine its trade secrets case | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com

[DigitalNomad76]

The detail about an Apple manager staying logged into a former employees personal iCloud to ask for technical help is genuinely the kind of fact that could sink Apples whole case, it directly undermines the claim that this information was ever properly secured

[Annie71]

This is a classic and honestly pretty clever defense strategy, you dont have to prove you didnt use confidential information if you can prove the information was never legally protected as confidential to begin with

[Andy81]

The door was unlocked so it wasnt really stealing framing mentioned in the coverage is a funny way to put it but it does capture the core tension here, poor security practices dont excuse theft but they do undermine claims that something was properly protected as secret

[RVD17]

Feels like both companies have legitimate points buried in here, Apple probably does have real grievances about departing engineers taking knowledge with them, but OpenAIs highlighting of Apples sloppy offboarding process is a fair counterpoint

[IronSpectre88]

Apple allowing personal iCloud accounts for work purposes at all is such a basic security failure for a company that markets itself so heavily on privacy and security, this is an embarrassing detail to have surface in litigation

[Dragon95]

Curious how this plays out given how many high profile poaching disputes happen in tech generally, if this defense succeeds it could set a precedent that makes trade secret claims against poaching much harder to win unless companies tighten their offboarding significantly

[MagnetarX]

The pretextual lawsuit accusation, framing this as Apple compensating for failing to retain AI talent, is a bold rhetorical move that shifts the entire narrative from theft to Apples own hiring and product failures

[Blue Coder]

Refusing to specify which exact trade secrets were allegedly stolen and instead using vague generic categories is a real weakness in Apples complaint if OpenAI is accurately characterizing it, courts generally want specificity in these claims