Apple asks court to block OpenAI over alleged trade secrets

Apple is asking a federal court to immediately restrict OpenAI’s access to alleged Apple trade secrets, escalating a lawsuit that now threatens to pull the companies into an evidence-preservation and forensic-inspection fight.

In a motion reported by 9to5Mac, Apple says it will be “irreparably harmed” without a preliminary injunction. The company argues that every day without court intervention gives OpenAI more time to incorporate knowledge of allegedly stolen information into its hardware development work.

The request follows Apple’s initial lawsuit and a subsequent letter telling OpenAI that Apple intended to seek emergency injunctive relief. Apple says it offered to avoid that motion if OpenAI agreed to five measures:

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• Stop accessing or using Apple’s confidential information.
• Halt any continuing use or disclosure of that information.
• Preserve relevant evidence.
• Allow forensic inspections of devices, cloud storage, email, Slack, Teams, and other repositories.
• Search OpenAI’s systems for Apple confidential information.

According to Apple, OpenAI accepted the first three requirements, but the companies failed to agree on the forensic inspections and system-wide search. Apple is now asking the court to order all five measures, including the recovery of any Apple information still held by OpenAI.

Apple seeks faster discovery

Apple also filed a separate motion to expedite discovery. That request covers early document production and depositions of key OpenAI employees and executives, potentially accelerating the fact-finding phase of the case.

The dispute follows Apple’s trade-secrets lawsuit moving to a new judge. The case is centered on allegations involving former Apple employees who joined OpenAI and the latter company’s hardware plans; Apple has also reportedly sent legal letters to 40 former employees now working at OpenAI.

OpenAI published its longest public response to the lawsuit so far at the same time as Apple’s filings. The company called the case “careless, aggressive and oddly personal” and said it did not reflect Apple’s reputation as “one of the greatest companies of all time.”

“The harm is happening now—every day that passes without an injunction allows OpenAI to embed their knowledge of Apple’s stolen information into its hardware development efforts, further damaging Apple and making it increasingly more difficult to unwind the harm.”

The court has scheduled a hearing on Apple’s preliminary-injunction request for October 1, 2026. Until then, OpenAI’s agreement to stop using the information and preserve evidence does not resolve the two central disputes: whether Apple can inspect OpenAI’s systems and whether it can search them for confidential material.