Apple moved for a preliminary injunction on Monday, asking a federal judge to block OpenAI and former employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan from accessing its confidential information.
Hours later, OpenAI struck back. The AI startup published internal iMessages and legal emails in a direct public challenge to Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit.
Apple argues it faces irreparable harm without court intervention and has requested expedited discovery. Liu, a former electrical engineer, and Tan, a 24-year Apple design executive, sit at the center of the dispute.
OpenAI Goes Public With Its Defense
Rather than respond only through legal filings, OpenAI published a blog post titled “Apple is getting this wrong,” describing the lawsuit as “careless, aggressive and oddly personal.”
The company attached the actual email chain from February, when Apple’s outside counsel allegedly sent an early inquiry to the wrong person after confusing two similar Asian last names. Apple’s counsel later apologized for the mix-up in writing.
OpenAI says that after that misdirected email, Apple made no further contact about the specific allegations for five months before filing suit in July.
The iMessage Thread Apple May Not Have Expected to See
The most direct evidence OpenAI released involves Liu himself. The published iMessages show Apple employees contacting Liu repeatedly after his January 22 departure, asking him to locate internal files and technical information.
One message directed a colleague to AirDrop files from Liu’s Apple-linked iCloud account. A participant in the same thread described the exchange as “highly irregular.”
As late as March 5, an Apple employee was still messaging Liu about internal files. OpenAI appears to be using the thread to argue that Apple itself was driving contact with Liu after he left, complicating the company’s claim that he was funneling secrets to OpenAI.
Tan’s Position and the Jony Ive Connection
Tan co-founded io Products alongside Jony Ive. That hardware startup merged with OpenAI in July 2025. OpenAI said Tan had been explicit with his team: “We do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies.”
Apple’s original lawsuit, filed July 10, frames the situation differently. Apple claims Liu and Tan ran a coordinated scheme to move confidential product information into OpenAI’s hardware operation. OpenAI has denied wrongdoing since the suit was filed.
400 Former Apple Employees Now at OpenAI
Apple’s complaint notes that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.
The scale of that movement is part of what Apple describes as a broader pattern, though the lawsuit centers specifically on Liu and Tan. No hearing date has been set for Apple’s injunction request.
Publishing private messages and legal correspondence in a public blog post is an unusual move for a company in active litigation. Whether the strategy affects the court’s view of Apple’s injunction request remains to be seen.
