Apple Sues Chinese language Phonemaker Oppo For Alleged Commerce Secrets and techniques Theft

Apple is suing Chinese language shopper electronics firm Oppo for poaching a member of the Cupertino big’s Apple Watch crew to allegedly steal commerce secrets and techniques.

Apple, represented by attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis, is bringing the lawsuit towards the corporate’s former sensor system architect Dr. Cheng Shi, and his new employers China-based Oppo and California-based Innopeak.

Dr. Shi now leads a crew creating sensing know-how at Oppo’s U.S. workplace, in response to a criticism filed by Apple on Thursday within the Northern District of California.

What’s Shi accused of doing?

Dr. Shi was a extremely paid engineer at Apple between January 2020 and June 2025 the place Apple says he had “a entrance row seat to Apple’s improvement of its cutting-edge well being sensor know-how, together with extremely confidential roadmaps, design and improvement paperwork, and specs for ECG sensor know-how,” which helps Apple Watches measure coronary heart exercise, in response to the criticism. 

Apple accuses Dr. Shi of downloading 63 confidential paperwork on the corporate’s shared drive for workers to a USB drive simply three days earlier than leaving. The paperwork allegedly included delicate info on the technological capabilities of but to be launched merchandise and “technical specs regarding {hardware} and software program implementations” of Apple’s sensor merchandise like temperature sensors in its Apple Watch choices.

Earlier than downloading the paperwork from Apple’s shared drive onto his Macbook, Dr. Shi’s web search historical past allegedly revealed that he appeared up “how you can wipe out macbook” and “Can any person see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?”

Apple additionally claims that Dr. Shi stole confidential technical info from the crew that’s creating Apple’s customized chips. Apple develops its personal customized silicon chips for its Mac, iPhone, and iPad merchandise. The corporate has additionally been engaged on designing customized AI chips for a while now, and the trouble is taken into account key to CEO Tim Cook dinner’s AI overhaul.

Oppo is understood for its high-tech smartphones, and the China-based firm received some warmth on-line again in 2020 for releasing what many deemed an Apple Watch clone.

Oppo’s smartphones, though ano match but to Apple’s iPhones, do remarkably properly in Asian markets, notably in China, one in every of Apple’s largest markets.

Together with Huawei and Xiaomi, Oppo has eaten away at Apple’s China market share, inflicting Apple to fall off from the listing of top five smartphone vendors in China in 2024. However the tech big has not too long ago began turning this narrative round: iPhone gross sales rose to the highest spot in China in Could, Reuters reported in June citing preliminary third-party information, driving an total improve in international gross sales for Apple.

Though Oppo doesn’t do enterprise within the U.S., the corporate does personal and function a “analysis heart” in Silicon Valley underneath each Oppo and Innopeak’s names, in response to the criticism.

Oppo has not but responded to Gizmodo’s request for remark.

What does Apple say occurred?

Apple factors to proof from Dr. Shi’s work-issued cellphone, which allegedly exhibits his communications with Oppo senior management from April 2025 to till he left Apple on the finish of June.

“This week I’ll inform my crew about my resignation,” he allegedly wrote in messages included within the lawsuit. “Currently, I’ve additionally been reviewing numerous inner supplies and doing a number of 1:1 conferences in an effort to gather as a lot info as potential – will share with you all later.”

Within the month earlier than he left Apple, Dr. Shi allegedly scheduled 33 one-on-one conferences masking initiatives he was not concerned in, in comparison with a median of seven per 30 days a yr earlier.

Then when he did resign on the finish of the month, Dr. Shi didn’t inform colleagues that he would start work at Oppo, however as a substitute mentioned that he was “returning to China to are inclined to his aged dad and mom and had no plans to hunt new employment,” in response to the criticism.

Apple is searching for an injunction prohibiting Oppo from utilizing Apple’s commerce secrets and techniques, and is asking the courtroom to award restitution and damages in an quantity to be decided at trial.