Yesterday it was reported by 9to5Mac that The US District Court for the Northern District of California had accepted Apple’s request to enter default against Jon Prosser in the lawsuit it filed last July after Prosser failed to respond.
Now The Verge reports that Prosser says he’s been in communication about the case.
“All I can tell you is that regardless of what is being reported, and regardless of what the court documents say — I have, in fact, been in active communications with Apple since the beginning stages of this case,” Prosser says. “The notion that I’m ignoring the case is incorrect. That’s all I am able to say.”
In July it was announced that the tech giant was suing Prosser for the alleged theft of trade secrets related to iOS 26. As reported by The Verge, Prosser is accused of tasking another man, Michael Ramacciotti, with secretly accessing an Apple employee’s development iPhone and using that information to report on Apple’s planned changes in the then-unannounced iOS 26.
From the lawsuit: Apple’s subsequent investigation revealed that Defendant Jon Prosser—working with Defendant Michael Ramacciottiimproperly accessed and disclosed Apple’s highly confidential, unreleased software designs, including details regarding the unreleased iOS 19 operating system (which is now known as iOS 26) for Apple mobile devices.
Both Defendants knew that Apple goes to great lengths to protect its trade secret information, including the highly sensitive information contained on devices used for the express purpose of developing new products. Defendants also explicitly acknowledged they were not authorized to access those devices, much less steal Apple’s trade secrets from them.
Defendants’ misconduct was brazen and egregious. After Mr. Prosser learned that Mr. Ramacciotti needed money, and that his friend Ethan Lipnik worked at Apple on unreleased software designs, Defendants jointly planned to access Apple’s confidential and trade secret information through Mr. Lipnik’s Apple-owned development iPhone (the “Development iPhone”). Apple learned the details of the scheme in Mr. Ramacciotti’s own words—through an audio message to Mr. Lipnik, which Mr. Lipnik provided to Apple.
Apple is asking for both damages and a court order preventing Prosser from disclosing Apple’s trade secrets again.
After the deadline to answer Apple’s complaint passed, Ramacciotti requested an extension, which the court granted, moving his deadline to October 17. Prosser, however, never filed a response.
On October 10, Apple asked the court to enter default against him, which would allow the lawsuit to proceed without Prosser’s participation or defense. Last Friday, the request was granted, reported 9to5Mac.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today