OpenAI has formally requested a federal judge to dismiss Apple's significant lawsuit, which accuses the AI company of trade secret theft, labeling the allegations as “meritless.” In a motion submitted yesterday to quash the complaint, OpenAI contends that Apple is inaccurately portraying its employees' actions as theft and is furthermore misrepresenting “generic” product development data as “trade secrets.” OpenAI also asserts that Apple failed to implement reasonable measures to safeguard any purported confidential information.
This request for dismissal directly counters a lawsuit initiated by Apple in July. That suit alleges that former Apple employees, who subsequently joined OpenAI, purloined confidential documents to advance OpenAI's hardware development initiatives. OpenAI's official legal response builds upon a blog post it released on Tuesday, titled “Apple is getting this wrong,” where it characterized Apple's lawsuit as “careless, aggressive, and oddly personal.”
Numerous points articulated in the aforementioned blog post are formally reiterated in OpenAI’s dismissal request. These include allegations that Apple’s case suffers from inadequate investigation, relies on selective or decontextualized communications, and is fundamentally “rotten to its core.” As an illustration, OpenAI specifically asserts that Chang Liu—a former Apple staff member now employed by OpenAI, who faces accusations of downloading confidential files from Apple post-departure—was merely providing assistance to former colleagues who had sought his help.
In its dismissal filing, OpenAI states, “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 company further emphasized its distinct mission, asserting, “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.”
The presiding judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments concerning this motion on October 1st. Concurrently, Apple, on Monday, requested a preliminary injunction aimed at prohibiting OpenAI and the specific employees cited in the complaint from accessing, acquiring, utilizing, or divulging any alleged confidential information for the duration of the ongoing lawsuit.
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