January 5, 2005 10:36 AM PST
Apple suit foreshadows coming products
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Apple on Tuesday sued the publisher of Mac enthusiast site Think Secret and other unnamed individuals, alleging that recent postings on the site contain Apple trade secrets, according to court documents seen by CNET News.com.
The suit, filed Tuesday in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, Calif., aims to identify who is leaking the information and to get an injunction preventing further release of trade secrets. However, in filing the suit, Apple identifies specific articles that contain trade secrets, indicating that at least parts of those reports are on the mark.
The lawsuit is the company's third intellectual-property suit in recent weeks. In other court cases, Apple is suing two men who it says distributed prerelease versions of Tiger, the next iteration of Mac OS X. In a separate action, it is suing unnamed individuals who leaked details about a forthcoming music device code-named Asteroid.
In the latter case, Apple won court permission to issue subpoenas to Think Secret and two other Mac enthusiast sites in an effort to ferret out who leaked the information.
Apple said in a statement to CNET News.com that the company's "DNA is innovation, and the protection of our trade secrets is crucial to our success."
"Apple has filed a civil complaint against the owner of ThinkSecret.com and unnamed individuals who we believe stole Apple's trade secrets," Apple said in its statement. "We believe that Think Secret solicited information about unreleased Apple products from these individuals, who violated their confidentiality agreements with Apple by providing details that were later posted on the Internet."
A Think Secret representative did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
In its suit, Apple specifically lists certain articles that contain confidential information, though it does not confirm which of the article's details are true. For example, when mentioning the report that Apple plans a "G4-based iMac without display," Apple says the article "disclosed numerous confidential details regarding the technical capabilities of Apple's unreleased computer product as well as Apple's confidential marketing plans."
Similar confirmation is offered regarding iWork, which Think Secret said on Dec. 31 would be a suite of office software combining the
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Get over it Apple. Geez.
There is no way Apple would get upset over a 500$ single chip G4 computer announcement leaking out - that is not even a timely product. On my expectation list, I have a small 500$ computer with a dual core G5 processor by Apple, fast graphics, dual 1TB harddisk, fast Gigabit Ethernet etc. Seeing as if they should really build THAT machine soon, it is unthinkable they sell single chip G4s for 500 bucks, and even more unthinkable that they get upset about someone "leaking" such ideas.
There is no need for Apple to get upset over some alleged 'iWorks' program leaking either. Since there is OpenOffice and Microsoft Office 2004, there is only some type of 'Applix on steroids' package on my expectation list, something that contains web- and rendezvous-based cooperative document editing features, something that includes advanced document and image administration such as the free php-packages OWL and Coppermine Gallery or the like, something that puts LaTex document add-on sorting features at the tips of OS X Aqua users. So, it can't be that they get upset over leaking of something such as "iWorks". I really do not believe that. Besides, wouldn't they have to sue someone else for that 'iWorks' product name? Impossible.
Also on my expectation list for early 2005 is an announcement by IBM, saying that Apple releases OS X for IBM workstations supporting up to 32 GB RAM and up to 8 Processors. So I am confident they should be busy working on that one, which is very cool and very important.
It must be a hoax that Apple sues such little items that are neither complex or timely enough to get aroused by anyhow. That'd be like a supermarket getting upset about leaking the announcement of cheap, thin, fragile, plastic bags.
But apparently the Apple faithful is ready to rush right out and defend the company.
Hey everyone, the Kool-Aid is almost ready!