Apple has initiated legal action against a design engineer, Di Liu, for allegedly copying proprietary research related to the Apple Vision Pro. The engineer is now employed by Snap, the company behind Snapchat and smart glasses. This lawsuit is not an isolated incident; Apple has reportedly filed similar claims in previous years concerning trade secret theft.
In 2022, an Apple employee was found to have leaked confidential information to the media, and in 2023, three former engineers faced accusations of stealing technology related to the Apple Car. In 2024, Apple reached a settlement with Rivos, a startup accused of both stealing trade secrets and trying to recruit Apple engineers. Now, the allegations surrounding Di Liu involve claims that he appropriated a significant amount of Apple technology relevant to the Vision Pro and other unreleased products.
Liu has not publicly commented on the matter, and details of the case are primarily drawn from Apple’s lawsuit. According to Apple’s claims, Liu indicated that he was resigning to spend more time with family, concealing the fact that he had accepted a position at Snap. Had he been upfront about the job offer, he would have had his access to Apple’s systems revoked immediately.
Instead, he continued to work during a two-week notice period, during which he allegedly transferred files from his Apple laptop to personal cloud storage. Despite deleting certain files, Apple argues that the similarities between Liu’s retained information and Snap’s augmented reality products are evident. Apple seeks the court’s order to recover the alleged stolen trade secrets, although the practicality of this request remains uncertain.
Additionally, they are pursuing unspecified damages. It is important to note that Snap has not been implicated in any wrongdoing. A spokesperson stated that the company conducted its own review of the allegations and found no connections to Liu’s employment or behavior at Snap.
Snap had previously launched smart Spectacles in 2017, although they did not perform well in the market.
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