Apple is accusing considered one of its former engineers of stealing confidential design and growth info associated to the Apple Vision Pro headset and taking it to Snap, in accordance with a lawsuit filed in California.
Apple filed the criticism in opposition to Di Liu on June 24, 2025, in Santa Clara County Superior Courtroom, alleging that Liu misappropriated commerce secrets and techniques throughout his closing days of employment on the firm (by way of SiliconValley.com). Liu had labored at Apple for seven years and was most lately a senior product design engineer. He’s accused of downloading 1000’s of inside recordsdata to his private cloud storage account shortly earlier than his resignation.
Based on the lawsuit, Liu knowledgeable Apple that he was leaving his place to give attention to his well being and spend extra time together with his household. Nevertheless, Apple alleges that Liu had already accepted a job supply from Snap Inc., the father or mother firm of Snapchat and maker of the “Spectacles” good glasses. The criticism states that Liu didn’t disclose his future employment at Snap, which is ostensibly competing with Apple within the wearable augmented actuality area, and thereby averted triggering Apple’s normal protocol of revoking entry to inside techniques instantly upon discover of employment with a competitor.
Throughout that point, Apple alleges that Liu accessed and copied a “huge quantity” of inside paperwork from his company-issued MacBook, together with recordsdata associated to product design, testing, provide chain technique, and unreleased options of the Imaginative and prescient Professional. Apple found Liu’s alleged actions via forensic evaluation of his company-issued laptop computer. Log information from Liu’s machine apparently reveals he manually chosen particular folders, renamed them, and uploaded them to his private cloud account. Apple additional claims that Liu deleted recordsdata from the identical machine in an obvious try to hide the scope of the switch.
Whereas Snap isn’t named as a defendant within the swimsuit and isn’t accused of any misconduct, Apple argues that there’s vital overlap between the supplies Liu allegedly retained and the character of his new position. Snap issued an announcement in response to press inquiries, denying any connection between the lawsuit and Liu’s present duties.
Apple is searching for a court docket order requiring Liu to return the allegedly stolen supplies and permit inspection of his gadgets and accounts to confirm that no Apple confidential info stays. The corporate can be pursuing unspecified monetary damages for breach of contract and misappropriation of commerce secrets and techniques.