Apple has filed a lawsuit against Dr. Chen Shi, a former member of the Apple Watch team who recently joined Chinese tech company OPPO.
The iPhone maker claims that Shi “conspired to steal Apple’s trade secrets relating to Apple Watch and disclose them to his new employers” and attended dozens of meetings with technical members of the Apple Watch team before leaving Apple .
According to the lawsuit, Shi downloaded 63 documents from a protected Box folder onto a USB drive before departing Apple.
He allegedly informed OPPO that he was attempting to “collect as much information as possible” and searched for terms such as “how to wipe out macbook” on his Apple-issued MacBook .
This behavior raised significant concerns about his intentions.
As a sensor system architect at Apple, Shi had access to the development of advanced health sensor technology, including confidential roadmaps, design documents, and specifications for ECG sensor technology .
He now leads a team working on sensing technology at OPPO.
Apple claims to have found messages showing that OPPO “encouraged, approved, and agreed to Shi’s plan to collect Apple’s proprietary information before leaving Apple” .
