Apple vs OpenAI: Judge Grants Apple Early Discovery
Apple’s trade secrets case against OpenAI has moved out of the filing stage and into the evidence. Judge Edward Davila of the US District Court in San Jose has granted most of Apple’s request for expedited discovery, ordering OpenAI, its hardware arm io Products and two former Apple employees to hand over material months before the normal timetable would require it.
Apple sued in July, alleging that Chang Liu and Tang Tan used confidential Apple information to help OpenAI build consumer hardware, and that OpenAI pulled further secrets out of Apple staff during recruitment interviews. Apple has also asked for a preliminary injunction to stop OpenAI building those alleged secrets deeper into its devices while the case runs. Early discovery is how Apple plans to prove that injunction is needed.
What OpenAI Has to Hand Over
The order covers three categories of evidence.
Forensic images. Every forensic image the defendants have already collected relating to Apple’s claims, including the ones OpenAI’s own forensic expert examined. These are bit-for-bit copies of devices and accounts, and they are the kind of material that shows whether Apple files ever reached an OpenAI machine.
The recruiting playbook. Every document used to guide or run interviews with Apple candidates for OpenAI’s Consumer Hardware Products Group. The order lists checklists, guides, instructions, manuals and scripts, plus any “Technical Deep Dive” presentations or other summaries of what Apple employees said in those interviews, and anything that mentions Apple technology or parts.
Private chats. All LINE messages between Liu and Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng since 1 January 2026, including messages the defendants themselves quoted in an earlier filing.
Davila also cleared Apple to depose Liu, Tan and Peng, along with corporate representatives from OpenAI and io Products.
What Apple Didn’t Get
The judge refused to fast-track Apple’s request for OpenAI’s research and development files on metal finishes, power management and battery behaviour in its consumer hardware. Those will go through ordinary discovery, which means Apple waits longer and OpenAI keeps its own engineering work out of Apple’s hands for now.
He also parked a set of requests built around what Apple calls “Apple Originated Information”, describing Apple’s definition as “amorphous as currently defined.” Apple has five days to agree a narrower definition with the defendants and try again.
OpenAI had argued that Apple’s demands were too broad and that early discovery was pointless with the regular process about to begin. On most points, the judge disagreed.
Of everything in the order, the recruiting documents are the most uncomfortable for OpenAI. Apple’s case leans on the claim that job interviews doubled as a way to extract Apple know-how. If OpenAI’s interview scripts or deep-dive notes ask Apple engineers to walk through specific Apple parts or processes, Apple has its evidence in OpenAI’s own words. If they don’t, OpenAI has a strong answer to one of Apple’s central allegations.
The forensic images work the same way. They can show that Apple material moved, or that it never did.
The Bigger Picture
The case sits in a strange spot for both companies. Apple put ChatGPT into Siri in 2024, and OpenAI has since admitted that the integration underperformed. OpenAI, meanwhile, is working on a family of devices including a speaker, a phone and glasses, which we described as an escape route from Apple. Apple’s lawsuit is about stopping that hardware from being built on Apple’s own engineering.
Nothing in this order decides who is right. It does mean Apple will see inside OpenAI’s hardware hiring operation well before any trial, and the depositions will put Tan, OpenAI’s hardware chief and a former Apple vice president, under oath on the record.
Join the Discussion
Is Apple protecting its engineering, or trying to slow a rival that keeps hiring its people? Tell us what you think in the comments.
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