OpenAI agrees not to use Apple trade secrets amid a high-stakes legal clash over alleged misappropriation by defectors and forensic device inspections.
OpenAI agrees not to use Apple trade secrets amid a high-stakes legal clash over alleged misappropriation by defectors and forensic device inspections.
FILE PHOTO: The ChatGPT maker made the voluntary concession during a court hearing Wednesday. | Photo Credit: Dado Ruvic
OpenAI agreed not to use trade secrets that Apple Inc. claims were stolen by employees who defected from the iPhone maker to the artificial intelligence start-up while a legal fight between the companies plays out.
The ChatGPT maker made the voluntary concession during a court hearing Wednesday in which a federal judge said he was “highly likely” to side with Apple and issue an injunction against OpenAI. US District Judge Edward Davila will have the power to enforce the agreement, which also requires OpenAI to collect forensic images of 14 employees’ devices that may contain Apple’s confidential information.
For OpenAI, the agreement avoids the stain of an outright loss in its first substantive court showdown with Apple. The startup headed by Sam Altman was accused by Apple in a July lawsuit of scheming to steal intellectual property related to upcoming products and use that information to bolster its work on competing future devices.
Practically speaking, the accord gives Apple most of what it was seeking from Davila — a guarantee that its proprietary information remains off-limits for OpenAI’s own technology development.
During the hearing in San Jose, California, the judge indicated he wouldn’t give Apple everything it wanted, saying that a proposed forensic inspection of all devices and repositories that contain Apple trade secrets sounded like a “huge ask.”
Apple’s lawyer, John M. Desmarais, responded that the company would limit its inspections to a small number of employees who defected to OpenAI.
“They don’t have 400 bad apples, your Honor, they have a few bad apples and know who they are,” he said.
The companies have been at odds for months, despite a two-year-old partnership that wove ChatGPT into Apple software. The dispute arose while hundreds of Apple employees defected to OpenAI and has put a cloud over the startup as it targets a $1.4 trillion valuation and prepares to go public.
Averytin News Financial update.