A federal judge in California has partly granted Apple's request for expedited discovery in its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, according to Bloomberg Law and TechCrunch. Judge Edward J. Davila ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI must quickly hand over hiring materials, private messages and forensic images of devices belonging to engineers it allegedly poached from Apple.
The ruling lands one day before the two sides are due in court for a hearing on OpenAI's motion to dismiss the case and Apple's bid for a preliminary injunction. Apple sued OpenAI, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan in July, accusing them of a coordinated campaign to steal confidential information about upcoming Apple products to speed up OpenAI's consumer hardware plans.
What OpenAI Must Turn Over
Judge Davila agreed with Apple that there is a real risk critical forensic evidence could disappear. He pointed to a conversation between former Apple employees Chang Liu and Alyssa Peng about wiping their Apple-owned devices, and wrote that alleged secrets may become so entangled with OpenAI's hardware products that the harm could not be undone.
OpenAI denied wrongdoing and has argued the lawsuit is baseless, describing it as a pretext for Apple's difficulties in the talent market. The court did not grant Apple everything it asked for, and left the door open for narrower requests later.
- Forensic images of devices, to be handed over quickly
- Summaries of interviews with certain Apple employees and LINE messages between Chang Liu and Alyssa Peng
- Documents on the former Apple employees' responsibilities at OpenAI
