OpenAI countersues Apple, accusing former employee of stealing trade secrets

Jakarta (ANTARA) – After Apple initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI last July over alleged intellectual property theft, OpenAI has now filed a countersuit making a similar accusation.

According to GSM Arena, citing a report on Thursday (15 October), OpenAI alleges that an unnamed employee left the company after working there for six months. The employee had previously worked at Apple before joining OpenAI, and later returned to Apple with confidential files relating to OpenAI’s hardware projects.

In its court filing, OpenAI alleges that the theft of trade secrets is linked to Apple HomeView, a smart home hub recently announced by Apple.

OpenAI says its former employee took more than 100 confidential files relating to its hardware projects and presented them to Apple executives.

Apple has firmly denied the allegations, saying it has strict procedures to prevent new employees from using confidential information belonging to their former employers.

Apple also denies that any presentation of confidential files took place and says it has found no evidence of the files in question on its internal servers.

OpenAI remains unconvinced by Apple’s denial. In its court filing, it said it was concerned that its trade secrets and confidential information were now circulating within Apple and could potentially be used by Apple engineers to design future products.

The legal dispute is expected to proceed to court, with a hearing likely to take place between June and October.