Judge grants Apple expedited discovery in OpenAI trade secrets case
A US district judge partly granted Apple's motion for expedited discovery in its July 2026 trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, io Products and former Apple employees. Apple gains expedited access to OpenAI interview materials for former Apple employees who applied to its consumer hardware and robotics groups — potentially including checklists, guides, manuals, scripts, technical presentations and records referencing Apple technology or components — plus LINE messages between individuals named in the case. The judge also approved depositions of Chang Liu, Alyssa Peng and OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Yew Tan, and gave OpenAI five days to produce already-collected materials and 14 days for the rest, while denying Apple's expedited requests on areas such as metal finishes and power management; Apple may narrow and refile those.
The ruling shows Apple is pressing its trade secret claims hard as OpenAI builds toward consumer hardware that could one day compete with the iPhone.