Apple has filed a lawsuit against former engineer Di Liu, alleging he stole trade secrets related to the company's Vision Pro headset before starting a new position at Snap. The lawsuit, filed in California on June 24, claims that Liu downloaded thousands of proprietary documents during his final days at Apple, saving them to personal cloud accounts without notifying the company of his impending employment with a competitor.
Apple asserts that Liu took advantage of a customary two-week transition period, during which he still had access to sensitive information. The company’s legal team highlighted that Liu's actions violated confidentiality agreements he had signed when joining Apple in 2017. The downloaded files reportedly included codenames for various projects, details about technology, product design, and supply chain information.
In the lawsuit, Apple expresses concern that Liu could leverage these trade secrets in his role at Snap, where he is reportedly working as a product design engineer on augmented reality products. Apple is not pursuing legal action against Snap itself.
The company is seeking damages and requesting that Liu's devices be inspected to ensure the deletion of any proprietary information. This lawsuit is part of a broader trend, as Apple has previously taken legal action against former employees for similar breaches of confidentiality. Recent cases include settlements with former engineer Simon Lancaster and litigation against Andrew Aude, which was dismissed after Aude issued an apology.
In addition to internal lawsuits, there have been criminal charges against former Apple employees accused of stealing trade secrets, with varying outcomes including guilty pleas and ongoing legal proceedings.