(RTTNews) – A communication error by an outside lawyer representing Apple Inc. (AAPL) may have derailed early discussions with OpenAI over allegations that former Apple employees improperly took confidential company information, according to a report by NBC News.
Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit last week against OpenAI io Products and former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan, accusing them of stealing proprietary hardware information to support OpenAI’s consumer device development.
The lawsuit also claims Apple contacted OpenAI in February seeking assurances that its confidential information was not being misused, but received no response.
OpenAI disputes that claim, saying it did respond to Apple’s outreach. According to NBC News, the discussions broke down after an attorney from law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, representing Apple, mistakenly sent an email intended for another OpenAI employee to the company’s general counsel, Che Chang.
The lawyer initially emailed Chang regarding Apple’s concerns, but later accidentally sent him a follow-up message thanking him for a phone conversation that had actually taken place with a different OpenAI employee whose surname was Wang.
Believing the message falsely claimed they had spoken, Chang contacted Apple’s in-house legal team, saying he had never spoken with the attorney and requesting that the lawyer be removed from the matter.
The attorney later apologized for the mistake, while one of Apple’s in-house lawyers told Chang that he could continue communicating with the firm’s legal team. According to NBC News, no further discussions took place before Apple filed its lawsuit, and OpenAI says it has no record of additional outreach from Apple’s lawyers after the email mix-up.
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