Oppo Has Just A Few Hours Now To Hand Over To Apple Evidentiary Documents On A Former Engineer Who Stole Apple Watch Secrets

In the ongoing high-stakes court battle between Oppo and Apple, the former has only a few hours left to complete a transfer of required documents and device forensic reports on an ex-Apple engineer who stands accused of stealing proprietary intellectual property (IP) at the behest of Oppo.

Apple accuses Oppo of using its former employee, Chen Shi, to steal Apple Watch secrets

Before going further, let's summarize what has happened in this high-stakes saga so far:

1. Apple formally accused its ex-employee, Chen Shi, of stealing proprietary information related to Apple Watch sensors back in August.
2. The iPhone manufacturer believes Shi downloaded 63 protected files to a USB drive before leaving the company.
3. The Cupertino giant discovered that Shi gave a presentation on the proprietary sensor tech within the Apple watch to hundreds of Oppo employees.
4. The presentation was titled, "Apple's Sensor Hardware R&D Philosophy and Methodology," bearing the tagline, "Are you curious about how Apple's sensors are developed?"
5. The iPhone manufacturer accuses Shi of sharing confidential trade secrets within his presentation and the subsequent Q&A session.
6. The Cupertino giant has also accused Oppo of encouraging this IP theft.
7. Both companies are currently engaged in a court battle within the United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division. The case is titled Apple v Shi.
8. The iPhone manufacturer claims Shi deleted information about his IP theft from all Oppo systems after the filing of its court case.

Apple is asking the court for injunctive relief on four counts:

1. Shi should be barred from sharing any further information with Oppo.
2. The Cupertino giant should be given the opportunity to audit Shi's data sources.
3. Oppo should be prevented from developing products that leverage stolen Apple IP.
4. Oppo employees who were made cognizant of the stolen IP should be "quarantined" and removed from "any competitive technologies."

For its part, Oppo maintains that it has conducted a comprehensive search of its systems and found "no indication that Oppo received any Apple trade secret information" from Shi. The Chinese OEM contends that Shi's presentation was only focused on "general engineering principles" devoid of any proprietary information.

Shi has agreed to participate in a deposition, but has cited health concerns to request Judge DeMarchi to limit the duration of his participation.

Meanwhile, the court has ordered Oppo to furnish all required documents and device forensic reports to Apple by October 31. If, on the other hand, Oppo chooses to share this information on a rolling basis, it must start doing so on October 28 and complete the transfer by October 31.

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