Apple goes to war with the British designer of the iPhone
Apple goes to war with the British designer of the iPhone
Publish Date: 2026-07-15 07:52:00
Source Domain: www.telegraph.co.uk
OpenAI has also hired a slew of Apple employees in the last year.
In its lawsuit, filed on Friday night, Apple alleged that this was part of “a pattern of theft of Apple’s trade secrets by OpenAI employees who were formerly at Apple”.
It said Tan, one of Ive’s io co-founders, had asked Apple employees in interviews to divulge details of the company’s secret projects, and that OpenAI had asked candidates to bring Apple prototypes along.
Apple claimed the company had realised that making successful gadgets was harder than anticipated, and as a result had resorted to taking “unlawful shortcuts” as it is under financial pressure to deliver a trillion-dollar public listing.
The company also said OpenAI had failed to reply when Apple enquired about the claims, forcing it into legal action.
On Tuesday night, OpenAI responded, saying there was “no evidence this complaint has merit”. Documents seen by NBC also cast doubt on claims the company had stonewalled Apple, suggesting communications had actually gone dark after a lawyer representing Apple mixed up the names of two OpenAI employees with the last names “Wang” and “Chang”.
Apple’s lawsuit has been characterised as an attempt to put more employees off leaving. “At a minimum, this will slow OpenAI’s efforts. At a maximum, it will end their device efforts,” says Munster.
Even if he was not named in Apple’s lawsuit, Ive may well get dragged into the case should it go to trial.
“It is quite possible that Jony Ive and other founders of io Products will be deposed in this case since they are likely to be identified as having information relevant to Apple’s trade secret misappropriation claims,” says Elizabeth Rowe, an intellectual property expert at the University of Virginia.
Ive’s 30-year partnership with Apple was one of the world’s most lucrative collaborations. Their break-up could be similarly explosive.
