Apple is taking legal action against a former employee who allegedly shared confidential Apple Watch technology with a new employer, Oppo. The lawsuit names Chen Shi, who worked on the Apple Watch team, and Oppo as defendants, claiming they “conspired to steal Apple’s trade secrets.”
According to the filing, Shi served as a Sensor System Architect for Apple Watch from January 2020 to June 2025. While publicly stating he was returning to China to care for his elderly parents, Shi was reportedly exploring employment with Oppo as early as April 2025. Apple alleges that Shi secretly attended “dozens of one-on-one meetings” with Apple Watch team members to gather sensitive information about optical sensors, temperature sensors, and ECG sensors.
The lawsuit also claims that Shi downloaded 63 files from a protected Apple folder, transferred them to a USB drive, and searched online for instructions like “how to wipe out [a] MacBook” and “can somebody see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?” Apple further alleges that Shi communicated with his future Oppo employers, stating he intended to “collect as much information as possible” on Apple’s health-sensing technologies.
Oppo responded to the allegations in a statement to MacRumors, asserting that it has found “no evidence establishing any connection between these allegations and the employee’s conduct during his employment at OPPO” and denying any misappropriation of Apple’s trade secrets.
This isn’t Apple’s first legal battle over intellectual property. Earlier this summer, the company sued a design engineer accused of stealing trade secrets related to the Vision Pro and sharing them with his new employer, Snap.
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