OpenAI Responds to Apple's Lawsuit Alleging Trade Secret Theft, Points to Errors in Complaint

OpenAI has responded to the lawsuit filed by Apple on July 10, 2026, which accused the ChatGPT developer of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets. OpenAI rejected the claims, stating that Apple's lawyers sent a letter to the wrong recipient due to confusion between two Asian surnames, and that Apple incorrectly reported a conversation with OpenAI's general counsel that never took place. OpenAI also said that before filing the lawsuit, Apple did not make specific accusations but only proposed to 'resolve issues,' after which the parties had no contact for nearly five months. The dispute centers on former Apple engineer Chang Liu, whom Apple accused of retaining access to confidential information and potentially passing it to OpenAI. OpenAI refuted this, stating that Liu did not attempt to access trade secrets and that issues arose because Apple failed to deactivate his account in time. OpenAI published correspondence showing that former colleagues even reached out to Liu for help. Another part of the conflict involves Tang Tan, a former Apple hardware executive who joined OpenAI after 24 years at Apple. Apple accuses him of asking former colleagues to share information about future products, while OpenAI claims Tan always maintained that employees should not use confidential information of competitors. OpenAI stated it does not possess Apple's trade secrets and is not interested in using them, as it focuses on creating its own technologies.