Apple Accuses Ex-Engineer of Stealing Vision Pro Secrets for Snap
Apple is not playing around! They've filed a lawsuit against a former employee, Di Liu, alleging he stole confidential information about the Vision Pro headset right before jumping ship to Snap. It sounds like a plot from a spy movie, doesn't it?
According to the lawsuit, Liu, who was a senior design engineer, downloaded a ton of documents – we're talking thousands! – filled with proprietary information from Apple's internal systems. He then supposedly saved them to his personal cloud storage. The kicker? Apple claims he misled them about his reasons for leaving, not disclosing his new gig at Snap. This, Apple argues, prevented them from immediately cutting off his access, which is their standard procedure when someone joins a competitor.
Apple's complaint paints a picture of deliberate actions. They say logs show Liu carefully selected, renamed, and reorganized the folders he copied. Ouch! They even claim he tried to cover his tracks by deleting files from his Apple-issued laptop. While Apple isn't entirely sure what Liu downloaded, they believe the overlap with Snap's AR Spectacles suggests he intends to use Apple's secrets at Snap.
Snap, for its part, has stated that after reviewing the claims, they have "no reason to believe they are related to this individual's employment or conduct at Snap."
This isn't the first time Apple has gone after former employees for allegedly stealing trade secrets. It seems they're super protective of their innovations, and I can't say I blame them. After all, developing groundbreaking technology like the Vision Pro costs a fortune and gives them a competitive edge.
Source: The Verge