Apple-OpenAI lawsuit moves to a new judge

Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, two former employees, and Jony Ive’s io Products has been reassigned to U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in the Northern District of California.

The case was initially assigned to Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi. Under federal court rules, a magistrate judge can oversee a civil case from start to finish only if every party consents; otherwise, the case must be handled by a district judge.

Why the case was reassigned

Apple filed a consent-or-declination form yesterday. The document has not yet been made public, but no other filing appears to explain the change. That suggests Apple declined to let DeMarchi oversee the full case, triggering reassignment to Davila.

Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins will handle discovery matters. The change also vacated the initial case management conference, which had been scheduled before DeMarchi for October 13. A new date will be set before Davila.

Two existing deadlines remain unchanged:

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• The parties must discuss settlement options and plans for exchanging evidence by September 22.
• They must make their initial disclosures and file a joint case management statement by October 6.

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