A federal judge in San Jose hears two opposed motions on the same day, Apple’s request to stop OpenAI using anything taken from it and OpenAI’s request to throw the case out. Apple won part of its expedited discovery on Tuesday, and was refused part of it.
Apple and OpenAI are in court in San Jose on Wednesday, with two opposed motions heard at once. One would bind OpenAI for the length of the case. The other would end it.
US District Judge Edward Davila has both in front of him, Bloomberg reported. It is the first substantial hearing since Apple sued in July.
Apple wants an order requiring OpenAI to stop using any confidential information taken from it, and to stop seeking more.
OpenAI wants the case dismissed. Its argument is that Apple has identified no specific trade secret, only broad categories of hardware information.
The case has two individual defendants. Apple named Tang Tan, OpenAI’s hardware chief, and Chang Liu, a former iPhone engineer, alleging coordinated misconduct. The design firm io Products is a defendant too.
Apple won part of what it asked for on Tuesday. Davila ordered forensic images handed over, with the checklists and scripts used to interview Apple candidates, interview summaries, and Liu’s messages to a former colleague since January.
He refused another part. Research documents on metal finishes, power management and battery function stay in ordinary discovery, and Apple’s own category of “Apple Originated Information” was called amorphous, 9to5Mac reported.
OpenAI’s account points at Apple’s own systems. It says Apple encouraged staff to use personal iCloud for work, and that an authentication error left Liu with access after he left.
That argument is not new. OpenAI told the court in August that Apple cannot turn the foreseeable consequences of its own policies into evidence of theft.
Apple says the two are separate. The iCloud material is not its core allegation, which is that Liu exploited an authentication flaw to reach Apple network storage and download files.
The device is what is at stake. OpenAI says it is building a new family of devices for the AI era, starting with a doughnut-shaped speaker priced above $300 and due in 2027.
The suit has already slowed that work since July, and OpenAI is preparing to list at a targeted $1.4T. The metal finishing Davila left in ordinary discovery is what Apple’s complaint ties to the speaker’s shell.
In Europe this fight would start in a contract. California voids non-competes, so Apple must prove theft afterwards, while Germany permits a two-year restraint if the employer pays at least 50% of prior pay.