Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO has filed a motion with a federal judge in California seeking dismissal of Apple's lawsuit alleging that a former Apple employee stole trade secrets from Apple when joining OPPO.

According to court documents, OPPO contends that Apple's lawsuit fails to establish any connection between the alleged trade secret theft and OPPO's involvement. The company claims there is no evidence that OPPO knew of or utilized any trade secrets belonging to Apple.

Apple filed the lawsuit against OPPO in August in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Chen Shi, a former Chinese-American architect of Apple Watch sensor systems, systematically stole a series of core trade secrets before leaving the company. Chen Shi then joined OPPO and provided this information to help the company develop wearable devices.

It is understood that Chen Shi worked on Apple's Apple Watch development project for five and a half years. Beginning in April 2025, Chen Shi was allegedly “recruited at the highest levels of OPPO leadership, including its U.S. Research Center President and Vice President of Health Business.”

Additionally, Chen Shi is accused of downloading 63 files from Apple's secure Box storage system prior to leaving and transferring them to a USB drive. These files included: confidential schematics for temperature sensors and electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality; internal specifications for photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors used to measure heart rate and blood oxygen levels; documents from Apple Silicon engineering regarding proprietary chip technology; and unreleased Apple Watch feature roadmaps.

Consequently, Apple is seeking injunctive relief from the court along with compensatory damages for lost profits and competitive disadvantage.