When we wrote last month about Apple’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets, we said the defendant — owner of artificial-intelligence chatbot ChatGPT — needed to provide a fuller public response to the accusations. It has now done that, and the effort is worth looking at.

On Aug. 3 OpenAI put up a blog post with a much lengthier comment on the suit than it had previously released. It was published the same day Apple asked the court for a preliminary injunction to halt OpenAI from developing devices — including reportedly an iPhone competitor — it says are based on its trade secrets.

It’s becoming more popular for litigants to erect web pages or websites — featuring court papers, press releases and even evidence — about the legal battles they’re engaged in. OpenAI’s blog post is a mini variety of that, especially as it embeds internal text messages and emails to support its argument. On Aug. 6 the company updated it with a link to its motion to dismiss Apple’s lawsuit. The court filing was good to include, though it’s obviously more legalistic than the piece itself.

Until this effort, OpenAI had issued only anemic statements declaring it had “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets” and it is “not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit.” The Wall Street Journal called the blog post OpenAI’s “most detailed comments to date on the litigation.”

Litigation Communications

Headlined “Apple Is Getting This Wrong,” it boasts bold language but also delves into facts to counter the computer giant’s narrative. Fighting with facts is essential in crisis and litigation communications.

To give a sense of the boldness (cheekiness?), the entry opens, “Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details. This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn’t live up to that reputation.”

As for facts, Apple claimed it reached out to OpenAI in February about the matter but got no response. OpenAI says Apple’s outside lawyers confused two Asian last names and contacted the wrong person. Apple said it discussed the issue with OpenAI’s general counsel but now admits, according to the post, that never happened.

In the suit, Apple accuses engineer Chang Liu, who left Apple after eight years to join OpenAI in January 2026, of accessing the computer maker’s confidential information after he left. The text messages included in the blog post show that Apple employees had contacted him asking for help with locating the information. OpenAI also emphasizes Apple’s lax security, which it blames for continuing to allow the engineer access to files when he wasn’t even aware of it, according to the post.

‘Completely Unnecessary’

“Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets,” OpenAI writes.

The blog post got a fair amount of coverage declaring it a daring move. “OpenAI Fires Back,” Fortune had it. “OpenAI Hits Back,” said Business Insider. A Mashable article was headlined “OpenAI Takes Apple Lawsuit to Court of Public Opinion, Posts Texts.”

The blog post is an interesting development in the lawsuit and in the annals of litigation PR. OpenAI should expand it into a full website. This case isn’t going away anytime soon.

Image Credit: Timon – stock.adobe.com

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