The move appears to confirm at least some of the facts behind Think Secret’s revelations of various product launches expected at Apple’s forthcoming Macworld event to be held in San Francisco on January 10, including a new low-cost computer code-named Q88.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed a civil lawsuit has been launched in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County against Think Secret, its publisher The Deplume Organization Llc and other unnamed individuals, but was unable to provide a copy of the suit or any additional comment by the time of going to press. Nick dePlume also failed to respond to a request for comment by the time of going to press.
This is not the first time Apple has turned to the courts to try and stop product details being leaked before their official announcement. In December Apple asked the court to subpoena sites in order to discover the true identities of individuals who allegedly placed secret information on Internet message boards.
In this latest suit against The Deplume Organization, Apple is seeking damages as well as asking the court to force Think Secret to reveal the identity of its sources of the Apple news, which it says contains trade secrets. It also seeks an injunction to prevent further release of any trade secrets.
As we went to press the stories in question were still live on the ThinkSecret.com web site. In the last week Think Secret has run stories claiming to reveal an upcoming Apple productivity suite, named iWork, as well as a sub-$500 computer code-named Q88.
