What you need to know
- Apple won't tell the publisher of German-book 'App Store Confidential' which bits it doesn't like.
- Apparently, the business secrets are so secret Apple can't even divulge them to the lawyers in the case.
- The book is a work by Tom Sadowski, formerly the manager of Apple's German App Store.
Apple will not reveal to the publisher of 'App Store Confidential' which bits of the book it doesn't like, because the information contained within is apparently too secret.
According to Cult of Mac:
App Store Confidential, the recently released German-language book written by a former App Store manager, is seemingly so confidential that even Apple won't reveal the bits it thinks are classified, according to legal counsel representing the book's publisher.Dr. Ralph Oliver Graef said that Apple won't disclose which parts of the book it considers to be so important and, therefore, damaging. "[Apple has said] that it is too confidential to tell us what the business secrets contained in the book are," Graef told Cult of Mac. Graef is the Hamburg-based media lawyer from the law firm GRAEF Rechtsanwälte, who is representing publisher Murmann Verlag.
Dr. Graef stated:
"Our client is publishing the book... They know the content of the book, they have read every single page. And Apple is saying the content of the book is so confidential that they cannot identify the confidential parts."
It emerged in February that Apple was taking legal action against the work, over concerns it would reveal "business secrets" of "considerable economic value". Tom Sadowski was the head of Apple's German App Store business until November 2019.
Ironically, subsequent publicity surrounding the book actually propelled it to number one on Amazon.
According to the report, Apple has only specified one part of the book it specifically objects to, the story of how Apple considered acquiring Blinkist after Sadowski had introduced the two. Apple seemingly objected to that story despite the fact it was widely reported the news, and that Tim Cook even tweeted about meeting with the team. All of Apple's other objections remain a mystery.
Dr Graef also expressed confusion as to why Apple had not officially applied for a preliminary injunction or a writ, thereby legally filing the complaint. A fact that could lead some to speculate Apple had hoped to quell the book purely through threatening, rather than taking any legal action. For now, the book remains on sale.
