Applehas asked a US court to ‘identify and quarantine’ Oppo employees that have been exposed to Apple’s trade secrets from working on any competitive technologies. The iPhone maker accused Oppo engineer Chen Shi – also a former Oppo employee of stealing trade secrets and taking the information before joining Oppo’s InnoPeak Technology in Palo Alto.In a new court filing made with to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division last week, the Cupertino-based company said that Shi gave a presentation on Apple sensor technology to hundreds of Oppo employees.The presentation titled “Are you curious about how Apple’s sensors are developed?” allegedly provided insight into Apple’s sensor development and future product plans.Apple claims that Shi’s presentation included slides taken directly from Apple materials, adding he answered questions about sensor design at Apple.
In the filing, Apple alleges that Oppo has not provided all documents or forensic device reports that it asked for after the August filing. Further, Shi was given the opportunity to delete information from Oppo’s system after the original lawsuit was filed, Apple claims.
What Apple said in the court filing
Demanding “specific injunctive relief,” Apple said that it is necessary to put a stop to the ongoing dissemination and use of Apple’s trade-secret information. These will include:
What Oppo says
Oppo, on its part, claims that it has conducted a comprehensive search of Shi’s systems and there is “no indication that Oppo received any Apple trade secret information” from him.“Now the search is complete, and there is no indication that Oppo received any Apple trade secret information from Dr. Shi. There is consequently no basis for Apple to request preliminary injunctive relief, and it is not entitled to any such relief. OPPO has already looked for Apple’s “trade secrets” and “confidential information” and found nothing that it might disclose, retain, use or be obligated to return,” Oppo says.
