Apple has filed a theft lawsuit against former employee Di Liu, who allegedly transferred confidential company documents to his personal account while working on the Vision Pro title. The company stated that the documents were downloaded before he moved to a technology company called Snap. According to the lawsuit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court, California on June 24, Di Liu removed thousands of files from Apple systems and uploaded them to his personal cloud account.

Vision Pro engineer accused of stealing trade secrets

Apple announced that Liu gained access to the company’s confidential documents during his time as a senior design engineer on the Vision Pro project, and abused this access to transfer data outside the system.

In the resignation letter submitted to the company, health reasons were put forward, but no information was shared that he would start working at Snap. Apple stated that this situation disabled security protocols and allowed the employee to transfer data before leaving the system.

When records on Liu’s Apple laptop were examined, it was determined that many folders were manually selected and renamed, and some files were deleted. The company stated that these operations were done in order to leave no trace and that the amount of data exported was “large.”

It was not possible to determine exactly what content was included in the documents, but Apple pointed out that information related to Snap’s augmented reality glasses was carried. It was suggested that these documents, which are thought to contain similar technologies to the Vision Pro, could be used in the development of rival products.

Apple claimed that the employee contract was violated and demanded financial compensation and the return of the documents. The company did not directly accuse Snap in the lawsuit. The lawsuit only targets Di Liu. Snap stated in a statement that it had reviewed Apple’s allegations and found no inappropriate behavior by Liu in the workplace.