Four years ago, Jony Ive left Apple, and joined OpenAI, yet he isn’t named in the intellectual property theft suit. The reasons for that are myriad, ranging from the personal to practical.
On July 10, Apple launched what looks to become a major lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing ex-Apple employees of stealing intellectual property. However, despite former Apple design chief’s links to OpenAI, he isn’t in the crosshairs of Apple’s lawyers.
In Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman writes about the lawsuit and the oddity. He believes there are two big reasons for Apple not to implicate Ive in the lawsuit at all.
The first is relatively simple: He had little to do with it.
Though Ive is chiefly the face of OpenAI’s new hardware work, he is seemingly focusing on that product. While Tang Tan, one of the named targets of the lawsuit, does have more control over the hardware side of OpenAI as its chief hardware officer, Ive just does not.
Ive isn’t dealing with recruiting or operations at OpenAI. Since he doesn’t have much to do with that stuff, he wouldn’t have taken part in the activities in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit largely discusses the alleged actions of Tan, including problematic emails and encouraging potential hires from Apple to bring in prototypes and designs. Tan would’ve been in a position to carry out these actions, leaving Ive’s hands clean.
Relationships and axe-grinding
The other reason for not going after Ive is all about image. Gurman believes that Ive’s closeness to Laurene Powell Jobs, entrepreneur and widow of Steve Jobs, is insulating Apple’s ex-designer.
Powell Jobs is a supporter of Tim Cook and John Ternus, and she still has a close relationship to the company. The impact of Steve Jobs returning and saving the company means her approval is important to Apple as a whole.
Dragging Ive into the suit would make maintaining the relationship with Powell Jobs difficult.
On top of that, the optics of attacking Ive after his major role in the company’s history and his own close relationship to Steve Jobs would hurt the company.
If he had been named, Gurman proposes that Ive would’ve received sympathy while Apple would be criticized. That criticism would also be seen as Apple having an axe to grind following Ive’s decision to leave the company.
Ive left in 2019, but he was a consultant until 2022 under his design company, Love From. That period saw a number of Apple designers leave the company to rejoin their leader, Ive, at his new firm.
To Apple, Ive’s leaving and the subsequent departures may have been seen by Apple as Ive dismantling the design team while still under its payroll.
Whatever the reason for Apple avoiding Ive, it has led to him being almost completely absent in the lawsuit.
In the entire 40-page document, it refers to a group of “former Apple leaders,” which you’d expect includes Ive.
Apple can still do a lot of damage to OpenAI’s image and hardware work with its current lawsuit, going after Tang Tan. But by avoiding the temptation of tacking on Ive, Apple does so without causing itself that much reputational harm.
This story originally appeared on Appleinsider
