OpenAI Moves to Dismiss Apple Trade Secrets Suit
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- OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss Apple's trade-secrets lawsuit, calling the iPhone maker's allegations meritless and labeling the complaint 'rotten to its core' — Apple's own phrase from its original filing
- OpenAI argued Apple's complaint was 'plainly filed without adequate investigation and built on selectively excerpted communications and ordinary conduct stripped of context,' per the company's filing quoted by Mark Gurman
- OpenAI said Apple 'should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its failures to integrate AI into its products,' per the Axios filing excerpt
- OpenAI contended Apple failed to identify a protectable trade secret or plausibly allege misappropriation, per Quartz's reading of the motion
- The Financial Times reports OpenAI framed the suit as an effort to stop employees from leaving Apple — a competitive-poaching argument rather than an IP-theft one
- Axios warned that if the case survives, discovery could expose sensitive details about both companies' hiring, hardware development, and data-security practices
- Daring Fireball highlighted OpenAI's defense of ex-Apple employee Mr. Tan, arguing he retained an offboarding document innocently rather than to evade confidentiality obligations
Why it matters: OpenAI is recasting Apple's IP suit as a competitive-panic move, a narrative that—if the judge buys it—could short-circuit the case before either company's hiring or AI-integration practices face discovery. With Axios flagging that a surviving complaint would expose both firms' hardware and security practices, the motion-to-dismiss stage is where Apple loses its leverage or OpenAI loses its shield.
