GoKawiilAfter getting a second chance to formally respond to Apple’s lawsuit, Jon Prosser filed his answer today, disputing the company’s account of how he obtained and published details about the Liquid Glass revamp. Here are the details.
A bit of background
A few days ago, U.S. District Judge James Donato granted Jon Prosser’s request to set aside the default entered against him and gave him another chance to respond to Apple’s complaint.
The default had been entered against him after he missed several deadlines to respond to Apple’s complaint over the leak of the Liquid Glass redesign, which essentially meant that he could no longer formally contest the company’s allegations, and the lawsuit would proceed without his participation.
That was a very different situation from that of the lawsuit’s other co-defendant, Michael Ramacciotti, who had been staying at the home of now-former Apple employee Ethan Lipnik, whose development iPhone became the source of the leak.
According to Apple’s complaint, Ramacciotti learned the device’s passcode and accessed it without Lipnik’s knowledge while he was away. He then joined a FaceTime call with Prosser and showed him a development version of what would eventually become iOS 26.
Prosser would go on to publish two different videos featuring recreated versions of the leaked interface changes and app redesigns.
After Apple announced iOS 26, the company filed a federal lawsuit against Ramacciotti and Prosser, accusing them of misappropriating trade secrets and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
While Ramacciotti quickly responded and began cooperating with the discovery process, Prosser missed multiple deadlines and failed to formally answer the complaint. However, he disputed the characterization that he ignored the case, saying he had been “in active communications with Apple since the beginning stages” of the lawsuit.
Despite his claims, Apple asked the court to enter a default against him, and the court granted the request.
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