New developments have emerged in the trade secret lawsuit between Apple and OpenAI. Apple has submitted new materials to the court, claiming to have obtained "shocking evidence" to support its allegations that a former employee obtained company trade secret information for OpenAI. The relevant clues come from an investigation into the former Apple employee Liu Chang's old work computer earlier this month.

Old computer reveals new clues

According to the latest documents submitted by Apple, this MacBook is one of the few pieces of evidence currently provided by the defendant, and it was only handed over after several weeks of delay. Apple claims that these materials show that the company was not aimless in its collection of evidence; rather, its trade secrets may indeed have been used, and there is also a risk that some of the evidence could be destroyed.

Apple has not publicly disclosed the specific content of the new evidence, and the relevant parts have been obscured. However, the materials submitted by Apple before contained text message records of Liu Chang. Apple claims that this information indicates that he was aware that he could still access internal Apple documents.

Both sides clashed over access rights

OpenAI previously defended Liu Chang, stating that he accessed the relevant files after leaving Apple with the intention of assisting a former colleague who had sought his help. OpenAI also mentioned that so-called "residual permissions after leaving the job" are not uncommon, and the issue lies in Apple's failure to properly manage employees' system access rights after they leave the company.

However, Apple made a different claim in its latest document. Apple stated that Liu Chang was able to continue accessing internal information not due to ordinary residual permissions, but by exploiting a "rare and previously unknown authentication vulnerability." As a result, the controversy in the case shifted from a permission management issue to whether there was an intentional act of bypassing internal controls.

Apple applies for an preliminary injunction

Apple is applying for an preliminary injunction, hoping that during the trial, the court will prohibit OpenAI from continuing to advance hardware development based on Apple's technology. At the same time, Apple has also requested to speed up the evidence disclosure process, as the company suspects that there may be more former employees involved.

According to Apple's initial complaint documents, there are currently over 400 former Apple employees holding positions at OpenAI. If the court agrees to expedite the evidence collection process, the impact of this case on OpenAI's hardware project and the subsequent legal battles between the two parties may further expand.