Apple and leaker Jon Prosser have jointly asked a federal court to set aside the default judgment entered against him last October, with Prosser agreeing to hand over documents he had thus far failed to fully produce.
Apple filed suit against Prosser and Michael Ramacciotti in July 2025, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets after Prosser published videos showing recreated renderings of iOS 26's Liquid Glass design months before Apple's announcement. According to the complaint, Ramacciotti secretly accessed the iPhone of Apple software engineer Ethan Lipnik and showed Prosser a pre-release build of the software in exchange for payment. Lipnik was subsequently fired.
Prosser missed his deadline to formally respond to the complaint, prompting Apple's lawyers to file a request for a default judgment. The court entered the default in October 2025, after which Prosser told The Verge he had "been in active communications with Apple since the beginning stages of this case."
The situation did not improve significantly in the months that followed. A joint status report filed in April showed Prosser was still failing to comply with discovery, prompting Apple to seek a court order to compel him. The filing noted that while Prosser had provided some responsive materials, he had failed to fully respond to certain requests and had not responded at all to others.
This stood in contrast to Ramacciotti, who allowed Apple to forensically review an additional device, agreed to supplement his interrogatory responses, and offered to sit for a follow-up deposition, with Apple and Ramacciotti having been informally discussing a potential settlement since at least October.
Prosser did not retain legal counsel until April 14, 2026. According to the joint stipulation filed June 9, Apple served Prosser with subpoenas in January 2026 seeking documents and a deposition related to its claims against Ramacciotti, but Prosser had not fully responded to the document subpoena and had not sat for a deposition.
As part of the agreement, Prosser committed to producing all materials responsive to Apple's document subpoena by June 9, 2026, and to sit for a deposition by no later than June 16, 2026. Apple stated it believes setting aside the default is "the most efficient way to advance this case without further delay."
The stipulation still requires approval from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. If approved, Prosser would have ten days from the date of the order to file a responsive pleading to Apple's complaint, giving him a formal opportunity to contest the allegations for the first time.
