OpenAI agrees not to use Apple's alleged trade secrets after the judge says Apple is likely to win an injunctionOpenAI agrees not to use Apple's alleged trade secrets after the judge says Apple is likely to win an injunction

OpenAI has agreed not to use information that Apple says former Apple employees took to OpenAI, for as long as Apple's trade secrets lawsuit is pending.

The commitment came at a hearing in San Jose on 14 October before US District Judge Edward Davila, according to Bloomberg, whose reporters were in court. The hearing was on Apple's request for a preliminary injunction and on OpenAI's motion to dismiss the whole case, Apple v Liu (case 5:26-cv-07078 in the Northern District of California). Apple filed it in July against OpenAI, io Products, OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan and former iPhone hardware engineer Chang Liu.

What did OpenAI agree to?

• Not to use the trade secrets Apple claims were taken, while the case continues. Bloomberg describes the agreement as voluntary and says the judge can enforce it.
• To collect forensic images of devices belonging to 14 employees that may hold Apple confidential information.

Bloomberg reports that OpenAI made the offer after Judge Davila said he was highly likely to side with Apple and grant an injunction. None of the reports says whether the agreement has been entered on the docket as a court order, and no date has been reported for a ruling on the injunction itself or on the motion to dismiss.

What did Apple not get?

Apple had asked for a forensic inspection of every OpenAI device and repository holding its information. The judge called that a huge ask, Bloomberg reports. Apple's lawyer, John Desmarais, offered to narrow it to a small number of former Apple staff, telling the court that OpenAI has "a few bad apples" and knows who they are.

OpenAI denies taking anything. In its filings it says it has no need or desire for Apple's trade secrets, that Apple has not identified any specific secret, and that the suit treats ordinary job interviews as misappropriation. Hours before the hearing, OpenAI accused a former employee who went back to Apple of taking files on an unreleased device; Apple told Bloomberg it had found no evidence for that claim.

Our take

An agreement like this is what a defendant offers when a judge has signalled which way he is leaning. By promising not to use the material, OpenAI gets to shape the terms itself rather than have Judge Davila write them, and it avoids a written injunction finding that Apple is likely to win. Apple gets most of what it asked for without waiting for one. Neither side has to say it lost.

It also builds on the order the day before, which gave Apple early access to OpenAI's interview records, forensic images and depositions. The 14 devices OpenAI will now image are a clue to how far the alleged problem reaches: Apple says hundreds of its staff moved to OpenAI, and Mr Desmarais was willing to settle for a handful. That is a narrower case than the July complaint read, and narrower than the arguments over OpenAI's evidence before the hearing suggested.

What we are watching for is the paperwork. A promise made in court is only as useful as the order that records it, and until one appears on the docket the scope of "Apple's trade secrets" remains as loosely defined as the judge has already said Apple's own definition is. Apple has used this approach against rivals hiring its engineers before, most recently in its Apple Watch trade secret case against Oppo. APPDOOK sees the same shape in both: the fight is over people and what they carried out in their heads and on their devices, not over a product anyone can buy yet. OpenAI's first device has not been announced, and nothing in this hearing says it will be delayed.