Apple Sues Former Employee for Alleged Trade Secret Theft to Chinese Rival OPPO

Tech giant Apple has taken legal action against a former member of its Apple Watch team, accusing him of stealing trade secrets and sharing them with Chinese consumer tech competitor OPPO. The lawsuit, first reported by MacRumors, alleges that Dr. Chen Shi, a former sensor systems architect on the Apple Watch team, conspired to steal confidential information related to the Apple Watch and disclose it to his new employers, OPPO and InnoPeak.

The suit claims that during his time at Apple, Shi downloaded 63 confidential documents onto one of his personal USB drives. Furthermore, he is accused of misrepresenting the reasons for his departure from the company, stating that he was leaving to provide care for elderly parents in China, while in reality he took up a position with OPPO.

Additionally, Shi allegedly held numerous one-on-one meetings with members of the Apple Watch technical team, during which he learned about their ongoing research and development efforts, including work on optical sensors, temperature sensors, and ECG sensors.

Apple’s lawyers also allege that Shi was aware of the illegal nature of his actions, as evidenced by searches such as “how to wipe out [a] MacBook” and “Can somebody see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?”

OPPO has denied Apple’s claims, stating that they have found no evidence linking the allegations to Shi’s conduct during his employment at OPPO.

The US technology sector has been particularly vigilant about insider-information leaks for several years now. In 2020, John Demers, who served as US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, told the RSA Conference that “We see [trade secret theft] more and more manifesting itself from the insider threat.”

Apple’s allegations of insider-information theft have resulted in federal charges before. In March 2023, a federal grand jury indicted and later charged a former Apple employee in connection with the now-defunct Apple Car project, accusing him of stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems.

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