A federal judge has given Apple much broader access to early evidence in its ongoing trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI and former staff members. This October 27 decision builds on a previous order, allowing the iPhone maker to look deeper into whether any confidential information was improperly shared or destroyed. The dispute centers heavily on a new consumer hardware project.
Court allows deeper look into hardware work and deleted files
The initial ruling on October 13 gave limited access to hiring files. Now, the judge has opened things up more. The new order requires OpenAI and the former staff to provide clear details regarding specific hardware projects and any potentially destroyed data.
Here are the main areas where the judge approved disclosure:
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- Testimony regarding work on batteries, power management, and metal finishing.
- Details surrounding the deletion of any confidential files, including who deleted them and why.
- Information on interviews with former staff to see if sensitive data was discussed.
- Steps the company took to stop the misuse of protected data.
They have 14 days to provide this new material. However, the judge did block a few requests, pushing back on demands for broad corporate testimony and internal investigation records.
Apple targets how former staff used coding tools and chatbots
One major point of interest in this case involves the use of modern artificial intelligence tools. Many developers rely on chatbots to write or check code. If employees pasted sensitive hardware information into these external platforms, the data could still exist on those accounts.
The ruling gives the legal team permission to look into these specific actions:
- Which specific AI tools and chatbots the former employees used during their work.
- The accounts and devices linked to those tool interactions.
- Whether any protected text or code was copied and pasted into the platforms.
This order does not determine if any actual theft took place, and OpenAI continues to deny the allegations. What happens next will depend heavily on the files handed over in the coming weeks. If the discovery process reveals that protected data was used in the new hardware project, it could shift the direction of the lawsuit.
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