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Monday, 13 July 2026

Compiled with AI from public news sources. Folio is editorial commentary for commercial-awareness practice, not legal advice. Verify any detail against the linked sources before relying on it professionally.

All M&A Capital Markets Banking & Finance Energy & Tech Regulation Disputes International AI & Law

Top Story/Disputes

Apple sues OpenAI in US federal court alleging a scheme to steal iPhone trade secrets used to build a competing consumer hardware device

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in US federal court, alleging a months-long scheme to misappropriate trade secrets. The claim centres on the allegation that current and former Apple employees, after moving to OpenAI, used confidential information obtained at Apple to advance OpenAI's development of a consumer hardware device, described in sources as a screen-free 'third core device' that OpenAI is developing following its acquisition of designer Jony Ive's startup io for $6.4 billion. The complaint names specific individuals. Tang Tan, described as a 24-year Apple veteran who ran iPhone and Apple Watch product design before becoming OpenAI's hardware chief, is alleged to have used Apple's secret project code names to recruit employees and coached departing staff on evading Apple's security procedures. He is also alleged to have asked job candidates to bring actual parts from unreleased Apple products to interviews for what the complaint describes as 'show and tell'. A second named individual, engineer Chang Liu, is alleged to have downloaded dozens of confidential files before leaving Apple, with a message recovered in the complaint reading: 'LOL, I found out I can access the network storage, so funny.' Liu reportedly never returned his Apple laptop. The lawsuit arrives two years after Apple and OpenAI entered a commercial partnership to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone, making the litigation an unusually sharp breakdown of a recently announced strategic alliance. The complaint was filed in federal court in the United States.

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Also Today

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City asset managers push for an industry-wide KYC utility as Rathbones client onboarding failings expose systemic weakness in current verification processes

A widely-reported operational failure at Rathbones, a listed UK wealth manager, has reignited debate among City asset managers about the viability of a shared industry utility f…

“Every major KYC failure re-runs the same debate: shared utility or firm-by-firm obligation, and regulators…”

Banking & Finance

Milbank's leveraged finance co-head signals aggressive talent strategy, prioritising specialists over generalists from the earliest career stage

Milbank, the US law firm with a prominent leveraged finance (LF) practice in London, has articulated a deliberate hiring philosophy aimed at recruiting lawyers who are committed…

Milbank

“Leveraged finance specialism is now a hiring filter, not just a career outcome, at the leading US firms in…”

International

Law.com analysis examines the commercial and legal risks when confidential client information is exposed, as trade secrets protection becomes a front-line concern for global firms

A Law.com international edition piece published on 12 July 2026 examines the legal and commercial risks that arise when a firm's most valuable confidential information is compro…

“Trade secret misappropriation risk scales with employee mobility: the faster talent moves across AI firms,…”

Bigger Picture

Sector Watch

AI Liability Crystallising in Courts

Three converging developments this week mark a turning point in how courts and regulators are treating AI risk in legal practice. A US federal court has found that using public AI chatbots may waive attorney-client privilege; courts continue to impose sanctions for hallucinated case citations; and Apple's trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI puts AI hardware confidentiality at the centre of major commercial litigation. For City firms, the practical consequence is that AI tool governance, covering what data goes in, what vendors can do with it, and how output is verified before filing, is now a professional conduct issue with direct liability consequences. Expect the privilege waiver question in particular to migrate to English law disputes within the next 12 to 18 months.

One to Follow

The Apple v OpenAI trade secrets lawsuit in US federal court, centring on alleged misappropriation of iPhone hardware confidential information by named former Apple employees now at OpenAI

If Apple establishes the core misappropriation claims, the case will set a benchmark for how courts treat confidential information carried by AI-sector employees across organisational boundaries, directly affecting employment, IP, and commercial litigation practice at every firm with a technology client base. The partnership-to-litigation arc also raises novel questions about how collaboration agreements between technology companies should be drafted when the parties are simultaneously potential competitors.

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