
A California appellate court heard arguments yesterday on a
highly charged discovery issue about a subpoena issued by Apple in its trade secret lawsuit, Apple v. Does. The twists
and turns of legal process can be a mystery to non-lawyers and even to those of us who had the dubious honor of
sweating through law school and years of practice. So here's some background that may help put yesterday's proceedings
in context.
The discovery issue is an offshoot of the main Apple v. Does case, filed in December 2004, in
which Apple alleges that unnamed defendants ("Does"), leaked trade secrets about an unreleased Apple product
to several blogs, including PowerPage.org and AppleInsider.com, which published the information. The unreleased
product, code-named Asteroid, was a firewire interface for GarageBand.
The discovery dispute argued
yesterday is a side issue about a subpoena that Apple sent to nFox, the email ISP for PowerPage.org, seeking emails and
other information that might reveal the identity of the sources who leaked the alleged trade secrets. PowerPage.org
publisher Jason O'Grady, along with two other online publishers, filed a motion for a protective order against Apple in
February, 2005 asking for a stay of the nFox subpoena. Neither nFox, O'Grady, nor the other online publishers in the
discovery action are named parties in the main lawsuit. O'Grady et al are represented in the discovery suit by The
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Continue reading “Appellate arguments heard in Apple v. Does subpoena dispute”