Apple accuses San Jose engineer of stealing Vision Pro secrets for competitor
It seems that augmented reality is not the only thing Apple is expanding. The company has filed a lawsuit against its former engineer, accusing him of stealing confidential data related to the Apple Vision Pro headset and passing it to Snap Inc. the company behind Snapchat and the developer of Spectacles smart glasses.
What is known
According to the case filed in the Santa Clara County court on 24 June 2025, engineer Di Liu, who worked at Apple for seven years and held the position of senior product design engineer, leaked thousands of internal files to his personal cloud account during his last days at work. This includes data on design, testing, supply chain strategy, and Vision Pro features that have not yet been announced.
Interestingly, when Liu resigned, he told Apple that he was leaving for the sake of his health and family. But the company claims that at that time he had already signed a contract with Snap. Moreover, he did not inform his employer about this, which allowed him to avoid instantly blocking access to Apple's internal systems.
The company's specialists discovered the file uploads when analysing the laptop issued to Liu. The log files showed that he selectively renamed folders, uploaded them to the cloud, and then deleted local copies to hide the traces. At the same time, Snap is only indirectly involved in the case: the company is not accused and has already stated that Liu's actions are not related to his current duties.
The bottom line.
Apple is demanding through the court the return of all stolen materials, inspection of Liu's devices, and financial compensation for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. And while Vision Pro teaches people how to see augmented reality, Apple's lawyers are training their eyes to find holes in the NDA.
Source: Macrumors with reference to siliconvalley.com
