Apple has taken legal action against one of its former engineers, Di Liu, accusing him of stealing trade secrets tied to the highly advanced Vision Pro headset and secretly joining Snap Inc., a direct competitor in the AR space. The lawsuit, filed on June 24, 2025, in Santa Clara County, alleges that Liu, who worked at Apple for seven years and held a senior product design position, illicitly transferred confidential files to his personal cloud storage during his final days at the company.
According to Apple, Liu had privileged access to unreleased technologies and hardware testing data related to Vision Pro and upcoming products.
The company claims he deliberately withheld information about accepting a job at Snap, instead citing personal reasons for his departure-allegedly to avoid triggering Apple’s security offboarding procedures, which would have cut off his internal system access immediately.
A forensic audit of Liu’s company-issued MacBook revealed a significant volume of proprietary information had been accessed, copied, and later wiped to cover his tracks. Apple insists the act was not accidental but a calculated breach of trust and confidentiality. They are now demanding the return of all stolen data, access to Liu’s personal devices and accounts, and unspecified monetary damages.
Snap Inc. has distanced itself from the situation, stating it has no involvement in Liu’s actions. While Liu has yet to respond publicly, the case is reigniting discussions around corporate espionage and the high stakes of intellectual property in the race for AR dominance. Apple’s Vision Pro, which continues to hold a premium spot in the AR/VR landscape with its seamless ecosystem and immersive capabilities, seems to have more than just competitors-it has targets.
This isn’t Apple’s first legal skirmish over internal leaks, but it serves as a clear signal that the company is prepared to go to great lengths to protect its innovations from being quietly replicated under the guise of ‘industry inspiration.’