According to Apple's recent actions, it looks like the tech giant is not a big fan of leaks particularly when it comes to the company's flagship product the iPhone. A cease and desist letter sent by the company's lawyers in China to a Chinese citizen reveals why it doesn't like leaks. The letter mentions that such leaks could lead case manufacturers into thinking how the final product may look like which could lead to accessories that are incompatible with the final hardware. The letter reads "third-party accessory manufacturers may develop and sell mobile phone cases and other accessories that are not actually compatible with the unreleased products." Accessories for products like the iPhone make up a huge market that is estimated to be worth around twenty billion dollars.
In the letter, the company also mentions how such leaks make launch events less surprising and delightful for their consumers. "Apple has made every effort to take strict measures to maintain confidentiality for any information about Apple’s products before their official release to ensure that every time Apple releases a new product, it can surprise the public. The secret of Apple’s latest technological innovation is an important part of the company DNA."
“Such situations harm the interests of consumers and Apple. Therefore, it is obvious that when the unpublished information about the design and performance of Apple’s products is kept confidential, it has actual and potential commercial value,” the company’s lawyers mentioned in the letter. It looks like the company is cracking down on a particular group of people who deal in selling not just new but also the versions that never made it to the public. The tech giant in its letter accused the person of infringement of the company’s trade secrets by publishing “a large amount of information related to Apple’s unreleased and rumoured products,” resulting in “widespread recognition and a large number of followers.” Apple has described the person’s posts as an “illegal disclosure of Apple’s trade secrets.” “You have disclosed without authorization a large amount of information related to Apple’s unreleased and rumoured products, which has constituted a deliberate infringement of Apple’s trade secrets.”
“Through investigation, Apple has obtained relevant evidence about your unauthorized disclosure of Apple’s unreleased and rumoured products,” the letter mentions. “Your intentional infringement is specifically manifested as: publishing unpublished information about Apple’s new products through social media platforms, including but not limited to the design and performance of these new products.”
It is still not known how many such sellers have received a similar letter, however the date of the letter coincides with the account of a seller who went by the name Mr White on Twitter and according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the account appeared to be active until June 11. It’s pretty clear why the tech giant wants to clamp down on such leaks as they could not only help competitors to start working on a competing product before time, but also make people more likely to wait for the upcoming model resulting in lower sales for the current one.
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