By Hamza Faisal
Apple has fired back at OpenAI in their escalating trade secrets lawsuit, accusing the ChatGPT maker and its co-defendants of going beyond what court rules allow in their latest filing. The new salvo, submitted on October 5, turns the tables on an objection OpenAI itself lodged just days earlier.
The dispute sits inside Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan, and io Products, the hardware business led by Jony Ive.
Apple wants the court to bar the defendants from using, disclosing, or soliciting its confidential information while the case plays out, arguing the injunction would stop its trade secrets from becoming further embedded in OpenAI's hardware development.

A reply brief sparks a fight over new evidence

As part of the legal back-and-forth over that injunction request, Apple filed a reply brief supported by five expert declarations totaling 126 pages and 13 exhibits.
The experts, including Daniel Roffman, James Pooley, Dr. Ayman Fayed, Dr. Paul Hatch, and Dr. Jude Runge, addressed Apple's security practices, forensic evidence from Liu's devices, and the value of power-management and metal-finishing trade secrets at the heart of the case.
OpenAI and the other defendants responded by accusing Apple of improperly introducing new evidence after seeing their opposition, asking the court to strike two of the declarations and disregard other material they said could have been presented earlier. In their objection filing, the defendants also submitted several documents of their own countering Apple's claims.

Apple calls Liu's declaration "the most egregious overreach"

In its October 5 response, Apple argues the defendants went far beyond simply objecting to new evidence, introducing fresh arguments and testimony instead.
Citing Rule 7-3(d)(1), which permits objections to new evidence but cautions the filing "may not include further argument on the motion," Apple says the defendants used the filing to relitigate the merits of the preliminary injunction motion.
Apple singled out a new eight-paragraph declaration from Liu as the worst offender, calling it "the most egregious overreach" in the defendants' filing.
According to Apple, the declaration offers excuses for why Liu wiped all data from his iMac before returning it to Apple, argues about the meaning of text messages with one of Apple's suppliers, and tries to explain away his use of one of Apple's confidential computer files.
Apple also notes the filing ran nine pages, breaching the five-page limit for such objections.

What happens next

The defendants had argued the court should only consider Liu's declaration if it also considered the Apple evidence they are challenging. Apple counters that since the defendants have now presented new arguments of their own, the court should decide the preliminary injunction motion on a full record, denying the request to strike Apple's reply evidence.
The underlying case, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses OpenAI of systematically obtaining confidential information by hiring Apple workers, questioning job candidates about unreleased projects, and contacting Apple suppliers.
OpenAI has denied the allegations, saying it has no interest in other companies' trade secrets. The court is scheduled to hear arguments on the preliminary injunction request on October 14.
By Hamza Faisal