Chinese tech manufacturer Oppo is being accused by Apple of stealing away an employee of the Apple Watch team as a way to obtain Apple trade secrets. The tech giant has hired attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis to represent the company as it sues its former sensor system creator Dr. Chen Shi. Apple is also suing the new companies that managed to lure Dr. Shi away from Apple, Oppo and Innopeak. The former is located in China, and the latter is headquartered in California.
Should Apple take this rogue employee to court?
Yes. He allegedly stole and disseminated trade secrets.
30.77%
No. It's Apple's fault for not guarding its secrets better.
30.77%
I don't have all the facts, so I can't answer.
38.46%
Apple filed its lawsuit on Thursday in the Northern District of California. The suit notes that after leaving Apple, where he toiled as a well-paid engineer from January 2020 to June 2025, Dr. Shi joined Oppo, where he is now the head of a team located at Oppo's U.S. office. The problem is, that as Apple notes in the filing, Dr. Shi had "a front row seat to Apple’s development of its cutting-edge health sensor technology, including highly confidential roadmaps, design and development documents, and specifications for ECG sensor technology." These sensors are used to help measure activity related to the user's heart on the Apple Watch.
Dr. Shi allegedly downloaded 63 confidential documents and loaded them on a USB drive
As noted, Apple claims that Dr. Shi stole company trade secrets. How did he do it? In the lawsuit, Apple said that just three days before leaving the tech giant, Dr. Shi allegedly downloaded 63 confidential documents from Apple's shared drive for employees to a USB drive. The purloined documents include important information about the technological capabilities of products that Apple has yet to release, as well as "technical specifications concerning hardware and software implementations" of sensors such as the temperature sensors used on the Apple Watch.
Oppo's Apple Watch copycat back in 2020. | Image credit-Unknown
Additionally, Apple claims that confidential data from its team that develops custom chips for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac products was stolen by Dr. Shi. The team has been developing custom AI chips for Apple. Oppo, on the other hand, is a Chinese manufacturer of smartphones and other smart devices, including a smartwatch that we called an Apple Watch copycat back in 2020.
Apple says that Dr. Shi's work phone from his days at Apple reveals that he was in touch with Oppo's senior leadership this year from April to June. He left Apple at the end of June. The lawsuit includes some messages that Dr. Shi allegedly sent to Oppo, such as, "This week I’ll inform my team about my resignation." Another message said, "Lately, I’ve also 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."
Dr. Shi allegedly told colleagues that he was returning to China for "personal and family reasons"
Speaking of one-on-one meetings, Dr. Shi had scheduled 33 of them at Apple covering projects he was not involved in. When the end of June rolled around, he didn't tell anyone about plans to move to Oppo. Instead, he supposedly told colleagues that he was "returning to China to tend to his elderly parents and had no plans to seek new employment." He told some fellow Apple workers that he was returning to China "for personal and family reasons."
Oppo representatives, responding to Gizmodo, said that it "carefully reviewed the allegations in Apple's complaint," and "found no evidence establishing any connection between these allegations and the employee's conduct during his employment at Oppo." Apple is seeking an injunction that would prevent the Chinese manufacturer from using the tech giant's trade secrets. Apple wants to have a trial held during which the court would determine the amount that Oppo would owe Apple for restitution and damages.
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Oppo doesn't do business inside the U.S. but does own and operate a research center in Silicon Valley under both Oppo and Innopeak’s names.
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