Apple Files for Temporary Restraining Order to Block OpenAI from Using Its Trade Secrets
Taylor Wilson
Apple filed for a preliminary injunction to bar OpenAI and two former employees from using its confidential information — the real stakes are who controls the gateway to the next generation of AI-powered devices.
What exactly is Apple alleging?
Apple accuses two former employees — Chang Liu, a senior systems electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch — of taking trade secrets with them when they joined OpenAI.
Apple claims those secrets are being used to help OpenAI break into consumer hardware. This means → Apple's concern isn't just a leak; it's that a rival could use Apple's own know-how to build "the next iPhone."
Apple sued last month. This injunction request escalates the timeline: freeze information use now, litigate later.
What does the injunction demand?
Apple asks the court to bar defendants from accessing, obtaining, using, or disclosing its allegedly confidential information — four verbs covering every possible path for the data to flow.
It simultaneously filed an expedited-discovery motion, demanding documents and depositions from Liu, Tan, OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng, and an unnamed former Apple worker now at OpenAI.
Apple also wants corporate representatives of OpenAI and its hardware arm io Products to testify. In plain terms = Apple wants everything on the table — what the other side has, what it used — before the case even goes to trial.
What are both sides saying?
Apple stated in its filing: "Without a preliminary injunction, Apple will suffer irreparable harm."
OpenAI fired back in a blog post, calling the request "based on false information and entirely unnecessary," adding: "We don't have, and don't want, any of their trade secrets."
This means → the two sides are diametrically opposed. Apple says "act now or the damage is done"; OpenAI says "there's nothing to act on." The court must decide whether Apple can show an urgent risk of harm.
What is this lawsuit really about?
The case is in the Northern District of California, but analysts say the law is only the surface layer.
The real contest is control of the future AI-device market. If OpenAI ships its own hardware, users could bypass traditional apps and operating systems — siphoning attention directly away from iPhone.
Put simply = Apple isn't afraid of losing a few documents. It's afraid someone will use its accumulated expertise to build a new category of device that competes head-to-head for iPhone users. Whether OpenAI is actually building a phone or other hardware is the core backdrop of the entire fight.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.