Leaker being sued by Apple claims the company’s trade secrets are public

Jon Prosser is arguing that Apple’s alleged trade secrets are now public, while the company seeks his YouTube revenue records, channel analytics, and third-party messages to investigate his alleged financial gain from leaks about iOS 26, reports MacRumors.

This is part of a new joint status report filed yesterday. In it Apple said it’s still waiting for YouTube revenue reports, channel analytics, and third-party communications requested from Prosser more than three months ago. The materials concern his alleged financial gain and how Apple’s confidential information was obtained and shared, continuing the discovery dispute detailed in August.

In July 2025 it was announced that Apple 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. 

According to court documents, while Ramacciotti cooperated with the lawsuit from the start, Prosser missed several deadlines to respond to Apple’s complaint. Prosser contested this information. 

Prosser formally responded to the lawsuit on July 3, according to a court document obtained by MacRumors. Prosser admitted that he participated in a FaceTime video call with Ramacciotti, wherein Prosser was shown certain “iOS 19” features and apps running on the development iPhone. However, he denied that any of the information he viewed contained trade secrets, and he denied knowing that the development iPhone belonged to Lipnik.

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