Apple has filed a lawsuit against Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo, accusing the company of hiring a senior Apple Watch team member and encouraging him to steal trade secrets to aid Oppo in developing a rival wearable device.
According to a complaint filed on Thursday (Aug 21) in federal court in San Jose, California, sensor systems architect Chen Shi allegedly accessed confidential Apple health-sensing technology before leaving the company in June, with the intention of benefiting Oppo.
The lawsuit claims that Dr. Shi hid his plans to join a direct competitor and arranged numerous one-on-one meetings with Apple Watch technical staff to gather information about their ongoing projects. Furthermore, just three days before his departure, he reportedly downloaded 63 sensitive documents from a secure Box folder and transferred them to a USB drive the day before he left Apple.
Apple has a history of taking legal action against former employees and rival firms over contract violations and intellectual property theft. Several former Apple engineers involved in its now-defunct electric vehicle project have faced criminal charges for allegedly taking proprietary information to China. Since 2020, Apple has also been in ongoing litigation with California-based Masimo over smartwatch technology.
According to the complaint, Shi misled Apple colleagues about his intentions by claiming he was returning to China to care for his elderly parents, thereby concealing his employment with Oppo, officially known as Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications.
