Oppo has responded to Apple’s claims of corporate espionage, so what really happened?

Recently, Apple filed a formal complaint in federal court against Oppo, alleging that the latter had stolen trade secrets from the company. The accusations of corporate espionage weren’t just baseless, either: as Apple provided damning evidence of Oppo’s skulduggery regarding the stolen technologies.Oppo has responded and, as expected, claimed that Apple’s claims are bogus. The Chinese tech giant has also said that the ex-Apple employee accused of stealing the technologies — Chen Shi — is innocent.

In its complaint, Apple had said that Shi had accessed confidential information late at night, three days before he would go on to leave the company. Additionally, Shi had transferred these files to a USB drive one day before his departure from the company.Till now, this seems like it could be going anywhere. Apple has claimed wrongdoing, but Shi could be innocent as well, right? No, no, I don’t think so.

Chen Shi stole health-tracking technology for an Apple Watch competitor. | Image credit — PhoneArena

See, Apple actually provided a lot of evidence against Shi and Oppo. It’s not just the company’s word that people are going to have to take here: Apple has receipts.

First, it was revealed that Chen Shi told his colleagues at Apple that he was going back to China to attend to his aging parents. That’s not true: Shi simply moved to an Oppo location in the U.S. But there’s more too.

Apple also provided the court with evidence that Shi had, in fact, been in contact with Oppo’s vice president of health. One message, sent by Shi in Chinese, says it all.

[I’ve been] reviewing various internal materials and doing a lot of 1:1 meetings in an effort to collect as much information as possible — will share with you all later.

And we’re still not done. Oppo’s vice president of health responded to Shi’s message positively, with an “alright” and an emoji. Though minimal, the intent of this response is not mistaken: at least this one higher up at Oppo was aware of what Shi was up to.

To me, it sounds like Oppo just got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. The case will likely lead to many more juicy bits of information coming out over the next few months, and is a clear example of just how cutthroat the corporate world can be.

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