Judge Edward Davila today granted some of Apple’s requests for expedited discovery in its trade secrets lawsuit against former employees, OpenAI, and io Products. Here are the details.
A bit of background
A few months ago, Apple filed a trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit against two former employees (Chang Liu and Tang Tan), OpenAI, and io Products.
In a nutshell, Apple says Liu and Tan improperly accessed or used confidential information about its products and technologies to help advance OpenAI’s consumer hardware development efforts. Apple also accuses the defendants of improperly obtaining information from other Apple employees during recruitment interviews.
You can read more about Apple’s original filing here.
As part of the lawsuit, Apple asked Judge Edward Davila to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the defendants from further embedding the alleged trade secrets in their hardware development while the case plays out.
Apple also requested expedited discovery, seeking early access to internal documents, forensic evidence, and testimony from OpenAI employees to better understand the extent of the alleged misappropriation and support its injunction request.
OpenAI opposed the motion, arguing that Apple’s demands were overly broad and that expedited discovery was unnecessary given that the regular process was about to begin.
Which brings us to today.
Judge partially grants Apple’s requests
In a decision issued today, Judge Davila granted most of Apple’s requests, while rejecting others and postponing a decision on those he considered overly broad.
That includes ordering the defendants to turn over several categories of documents and evidence, including:
- All forensic images that Defendants have already collected in connection with the subject matter of Apple’s claims, including those [examined by OpenAI’s forensic expert];
- All documents used to guide or conduct the interviews of candidates from Apple for OpenAI’s Consumer Hardware Products Group, […] including checklists, guides, instructions, manuals, and scripts; and all documents, including Technical Deep Dive presentations or other technical presentations, summarizing or otherwise memorializing the content of those interviews with Apple employees or any reference to any Apple technology or parts.
- All LINE conversations between Mr. Liu and Ms. Peng since January 1, 2026, including the conversations that include the messages cited in [a previous filing made by the defendants]
Additionally, Judge Davila authorized Apple to depose Liu, Tan, and Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng, as well as corporate representatives from OpenAI and io Products.
On the flip side, Judge Davila rejected Apple’s request for expedited access to OpenAI’s research and development documents regarding metal finishes, power management, and battery functionality for consumer hardware products. Instead, he decided that these will be addressed through the regular discovery process.
Finally, he postponed a series of decisions involving what Apple described as “Apple Originated Information,” finding Apple’s definition “amorphous as currently defined.” On that point, Apple has five days to consult with the defendants and submit a narrower definition to the court if it wishes to take another crack at those requests.
The decision also addressed whether the expedited depositions will count toward the limits imposed by federal discovery rules, as well as the deadlines for producing documents and conducting depositions, and you can read it in full below:
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