Judge orders OpenAI to hand over evidence in Apple's trade-secret lawsuit

#What happened

On October 13, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California partially granted Apple's request for early evidence disclosure in its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI, according to Yonhap News. OpenAI must submit device forensic images, interview materials related to Apple alumni, and messenger conversations between Chang Ryu and Alyssa Fung, both former Apple hardware engineers who moved to OpenAI, by October 14. The court also ordered early testimony from Tang Yu Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer, along with Ryu and Fung, within 30 days.

#Why it matters

Apple filed the lawsuit in July seeking an injunction and damages, claiming longtime employees accessed confidential documents and systems, including designs and specifications of unreleased hardware devices, shortly before leaving for OpenAI. The judge agreed with Apple's assertion that the trade secrets are so intertwined with OpenAI's hardware products and R&D that the risk of irreparable harm is significant. OpenAI denied the allegations, attributing them to misunderstandings stemming from Apple's data security and exit management. The court denied Apple's request for early disclosure of internal hardware R&D documents and ordered Apple to define the term "Apple-derived information."

Verified October 14, 2026