Apple renews push for expedited discovery in OpenAI lawsuit

Apple has submitted its response to OpenAI’s attempt to block expedited discovery in its ongoing trade secret lawsuit. Here are the details.

Earlier this month, Apple asked for an expedited discovery process in its lawsuit accusing former employees, OpenAI, and io Products of trade secret misappropriation.

That would include early production of documents and communications, forensic imaging of devices and accounts, and depositions of key witnesses.

Essentially, Apple wants substantive responses to its written discovery within 30 days and an OpenAI corporate deposition within 50 days, with both completed at the outset of the case rather than left to the broader fact-discovery process.

From Apple’s motion:

Apple’s motion came one day after Apple filed for a preliminary injunction, seeking to stop OpenAI and the other defendants from accessing, using, or disclosing Apple’s alleged proprietary information while the case proceeds.

In essence, Apple argues that the longer OpenAI and the other defendants are allowed to use its alleged trade secrets, the harder it will be to reverse the alleged damage.

Here’s Apple:

Following Apple’s motion for expedited discovery, OpenAI and the other defendants filed an opposition, arguing that the request was unnecessary because much of the regular discovery process would overlap with Apple’s proposed expedited timeline. It also argued that Apple’s requests were “overbroad,” “burdensome,” and based on “improper purposes.”

From the opposition filing:

Which brings us to today.

Apple today filed its reply to OpenAI’s opposition, arguing that not only did it establish “good cause for expedited discovery” in its initial filing, but also that its request isn’t moot, “even if expedited discovery overlaps with ordinary discovery.”

Apple also says the opposition brief “telegraphs the alternative: absent a court order, they will object, delay, and condition discovery into their misappropriation on tangential ‘reciprocal’ demands.”

From Apple’s new filing:

In its response, Apple also narrows the timeframe of its document requests to August 1, 2023, and later, while poking at OpenAI’s objection that the requests lacked a date limit:

Finally, Apple reiterates that its urgency comes from concerns that OpenAI and the other defendants could keep using the alleged trade secrets while developing their own hardware, while Apple waits “months or years” to question key witnesses:

Apple’s expedited-discovery motion is scheduled for a hearing before Judge Edward Davila on October 1, although the judge could rule on the request before then.

You can read Apple’s full response below:

Do you think Apple should be granted expedited discovery and a preliminary injunction? Let us know in the comments.