YouTuber Jon Prosser has stepped up his battle against Apple's lawsuit against him, in part by claiming he can't be accused of trade secret theft over iOS 26 now that it has long been released.

It's now more than a year since Apple filed suit against Jon Prosser for allegedly obtaining trade secrets concerning what would become iOS 26. The delay has been down to Prosser missing court deadlines and then Apple agreeing to an extension following the birth of his new child.

Now, however, Apple, Prosser, and his colleague Michael Ramacciotti, have jointly filed an update about the case to the court. And Prosser is using the delay to note that iOS 26 has been released publicly, so nothing he showed is a trade secret anymore.

"Prosser just received Apple's Trade Secret disclosure and it is difficult to discern if some of the items are still trade secrets," says the full filing, "if they were ever trade secrets in view of public disclosures by third parties, and/or if they are not trade secrets due to the release of iOS 19/26 and [macOS] 26..."

The argument that something was never a trade secret if it subsequently became public knowledge is specious. But if Prosser can successfully argue that Apple didn't protect its trade secrets adequately, that could be a legal defense.

It's the same defense that OpenAI has pivoted to in its dispute with Apple. OpenAI initially denied that it obtained trade secrets from Apple, but is now disputing this same point about what constitutes a trade secret at all.

Prosser does also claim to have "cooperated with Apple's 'informal discovery' requests." Apple, though, says that it continues to await documents from him, such as financial details and Prosser's "communications with specific third parties."

Apple also takes a dig at Ramacciotti, who in this filing says that the case has been going on a long time. "Although Mr Ramacciotti complains that the case has long been pending," says Apple, "as noted, Apple was unable to obtain discovery from Mr Prosser for almost 12 months."

Otherwise Ramacciotti's segment of the filing is chiefly concerned with stressing how he has cooperated, and now wants to be left out of the dispute. His lawyers argue that if Prosser "intends to aggressively defend" himself against Apple, "Mr Ramacciotti is unwilling to be drawn into it."

How we got here

Back in April 2025, Jon Prosser showed designs of what was then believed to be iOS 19, and was later released as iOS 26. Shortly afterwards, Apple filed a lawsuit against Prosser and Ramacciotti, claiming that they had misappropriated trade secrets.

Specifically, the claim is that Ramacciotti accessed the development iPhone of Ethan Lipnik, an Apple engineer. He is then said to have shown Prosser details of the unreleased iOS over a FaceTime call.

Prosser initially denied this, but Ramacciotti cooperated with Apple.

Around June 2025, Ethan Lipnik was fired by Apple for inadequately protecting his development iPhone. Following two months apparently unemployed, he has since worked briefly for xAI, then spent nine months as lead iOS engineer for The Interaction Company of California.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Lipnik appears to now be self-employed as a software developer.

What happens next

Ramacciotti has asked for a hearing to discuss what more Apple wants from him. It's not clear when the court may rule on this.

If the court doesn't grant that hearing, then the next step is a further update from all parties. That's due to be filed with the court on December 2, 2026.