Apple files lawsuit accusing former employee of stealing Vision Pro trade secrets

Apple Vision Pro
Apple has filed a lawsuit against former employee Di Liu, accusing him of stealing proprietary information related to its Vision Pro headset. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Santa Clara Superior Court, California, alleges that Liu resigned citing health and family reasons while concealing his new role as a product design engineer at Snap. Apple claims this allowed Liu to maintain access to sensitive data, which he then copied thousands of proprietary files to a personal cloud storage account.
MT Newswires:
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An “overlap between Apple’s proprietary information” that Liu allegedly stole and Snap’s augmented reality products “suggests that Mr. Liu intends to use the Apple’s Proprietary Information at Snap,” the iPhone maker also alleged in the lawsuit.
Apple said it aims to recover its proprietary information, prevent Liu from further violating his contractual obligations to the company, and recover damages arising from the alleged misconduct.
Snap, which was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said it had reviewed the claims and had “no reason to believe they are related to this individual’s employment or conduct at Snap,” according to multiple media reports.

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MacDailyNews Take: Liu worked at Apple from 2017 to 2024, rising to a senior role where he contributed to the research and development of the Apple Vision Pro. His work reportedly granted him access to proprietary technologies, including unreleased features related to the Vision Pro.
Apple alleges that Liu resigned in late 2024, citing personal and family reasons, but concealed that he had accepted a job offer from Snap, the parent company of Snapchat and maker of Spectacles AR glasses, two weeks prior. This role at Snap was substantially similar to his position at Apple. By not disclosing his move to a competitor, Liu retained access to Apple’s internal systems during a standard two-week departure period. During this time, specifically three days before leaving, Apple claims Liu deliberately downloaded thousands of confidential documents, including product design, testing strategies, supply chain details, and unreleased Vision Pro features, to his personal cloud storage. Apple claims that logs from Liu’s company-issued laptop show he selectively copied, renamed, and reorganized these files, and deleted others to obscure his actions.
Apple’s lawsuit, which does not name Snap as a defendant, seeks unspecified damages, the return of the stolen materials, and forensic inspection of Liu’s devices to ensure all proprietary data is deleted. The company argues that the overlap between the stolen information and Snap’s AR products suggests Liu intended to use Apple’s trade secrets at Snap.

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