Apple sued former former employees, claiming that he stole commercial secrets about the sight of $ 3500 before taking a job at Snap

The case was submitted on June 24, 2025 in the Santa Clara County Supreme Court. De Liu – a Chinese citizen living in San Jose, who was working by Apple from September 2017 to November 2024 and had a great role in the group of vision products – to violate a secret agreement and intellectual property feature by taking thousands of files containing ownership information about PROPE Pro, and other non -luminous apple techniques, during his recent days in the company.

According to Apple, Liu told his colleagues that he was resigning from the company for personal and health reasons, but “the Apple laptop reviewed by Mr. Liu showed that he was not sincere in the reason for his departure from Apple.” The lawsuit claims that Leo “negotiated a position with Snap Inc.” , Which makes its enhanced realistic glasses called glasses, and “received an offer to work on October 18, which means that he had waited nearly two weeks until October 30 to notify Apple that he was resigning from his position with Apple. Until then, he did not reveal his departure to capture.”

The lawsuit said: “Apple had not allowed Mr. Liu his arrival if he said the truth.”

During a two -week period, Liu used Apple’s laptop and accreditation papers to reach a “huge size” of secret documents to its personal cloud storage, including design plans, search and development records, supply chain data and files with internal names, which were distinguished as “Apple Conevidential”. Moreover, it is claimed that Liu has intentionally renamed the files and reorganized them and then deleted them from his company’s laptop to cover his paths, according to the lawsuit.

Apple claims that LIU’s actions were intended and calculated to benefit from his new role in Snap, where he is now working as a product design engineer on AR devices, according to what he said LinkedIn profile.

Apple is seeking compensation, as well as an order from the court requesting LIU to return all royal materials; It also calls for examining all his devices and cloud calculations by forensic examinations.

Snap has not been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, and Apple does not accuse the parent company of Snapchat of violations, but the lawsuit says that LIU’s actions may have given it an unfair leg in the spatial market. Capture last month Declare The appearance of new lightweight glasses will lead with more immersive experiences starting next year.

Apple and Snap did not respond immediately luckRequest to comment.

Apple has a long history of defending its intellectual ownership strongly – and taking legal measures against former employees accused of leakage or theft of commercial secrets.

According to what was reported, Apple’s Vision Pro, which first appeared in February 2024, was created at $ 3500 Between $ 1.3 and $ 1.6 billion in revenue For the company last year – excitement for a new product category, but modest according to the noble Apple standards.

However, Apple is going in the foreground: MING-KUO, which has deep connections within the Apple supply chain, Recently published a report An ambitious road map is determined by The Vision Pro, where Apple currently reveals at least seven projects in the field of development.

According to the report, Apple plans to pay a large payment in 2027 with the launch of The Vision Air-which is a lighter headphone with reasonable and more affordable prices-in addition to a pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses that focus on sound, photography and artificial intelligence environmental awareness.