Apple sues China's Oppo, accuses ex-employee of stealing 'trade secrets'

By Newley Purnell

 

Apple Inc. accused smartphone maker Oppo in a lawsuit of poaching a highly paid member of the Apple Watch team and encouraging him to steal trade secrets for his new job with the Chinese firm. 

Sensor system architect Chen Shi secretly accessed confidential documents on Apple’s health-sensing technologies for Oppo’s benefit to develop a competing wearable device before departing Apple in June, according to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in San Jose, California.

 

“Concealing his impending employment with a direct competitor, Dr. Shi set up and attended dozens of one-on-one meetings with Apple Watch technical team members to learn about their ongoing research,” according to the complaint.

 

In addition, “late at night just three days before leaving Apple, Dr. Shi downloaded 63 documents from a protected Box folder,” according to the complaint. “He then transferred them to a USB drive one day before his departure.” 

 

Apple has filed numerous suits in recent years accusing ex-employees and rival companies of breaching contracts and stealing valuable intellectual property. At least three of the iPhone maker’s former engineers who worked on its now abandoned electric vehicle autonomous driving project have been criminally prosecuted for allegedly taking secrets to China. The tech giant also has been locked in a court battle with Irvine, California-based Masimo Corp. since 2020 over smartwatch technology.

 

Shi concealed his defection to Oppo, known as Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., by falsely telling his colleagues at Cupertino, California-based Apple that he was returning to China to take care of his aging parents, according to the complaint.

 

Apple says Shi violated a confidentiality and IP agreement, and that Oppo knew of and encouraged his activities.

 

Shi couldn’t be reached for comment via LinkedIn, where a profile appearing to belong to him says he worked at Apple since 2020. Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Oppo is aware of the lawsuit and has reviewed Apple’s allegations, a representative for the company said in a WeChat message.

 

“We have found no evidence establishing any connection between these allegations and the employee’s conduct during his employment at Oppo,” the representative said. “Oppo respects the trade secrets of all companies, including Apple, and Oppo has not misappropriated Apple’s trade secrets. Oppo will actively cooperate with the legal process, and we are confident that fair judicial proceedings will clarify the facts.” 

 

Apple alleges in the complaint that Shi wrote in a message in Chinese to Oppo’s vice president of health before leaving Apple that he had been “reviewing various internal materials and doing a lot of 1:1 meetings in an effort to collect as much information as possible — will share with you all later.”

 

The Oppo executive wrote “alright” in response and sent an “OK” emoji, according to the complaint.

 

Allowing the actions of Shi and Oppo “to go unpunished would undermine Apple’s commitment to innovation and its substantial investments in pioneering technologies like Apple Watch,” Apple said in the complaint. “It would also risk destroying the value of Apple’s trade secrets and provide a competitor with an unfair advantage.”

 

After departing Apple, Shi joined Oppo’s research center in Silicon Valley, which operates under the Oppo and InnoPeak brands, according to the complaint.

 

The case is Apple Inc. v. Chen Shi, Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd., and InnoPeak Technology Inc., 5:25-cv-7105, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).