Apple claims 'huge' loss over iPhone leak

From InfoWorld: Apple officials told police investigators that the publication of photos of an iPhone prototype were "immensely damaging" to the company and represented a "huge" loss, recently released court documents show.

Those documents, released Friday by a San Mateo, Calif. county judge, reveal details of a meeting between police and Apple that ultimately led to the seizure of several computers from the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen.

Gizmodo published photographs and analysis of the iPhone prototype -- widely believed to be similar to the smartphone Apple will launch next month -- on April 19. Gawker Media, the company that operates Gizmodo, has admitted it paid $5,000 for the phone after it was left at a Redwood City, Calif., bar by an Apple software engineer.

The next day, April 20, Detective Matthew Brand of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office met with Bruce Sewell, Apple's chief counsel; Rick Orloff, the company's director of information security; and George Riley, a lawyer from the Los Angeles law firm of O'Melveny and Myers, which represents Apple. During the meeting, Riley told Brand that the premature disclose of iPhone details had been "immensely damaging" to Apple.

"By publishing details about the phone and its features, sales of current Apple products are hurt wherein people that [sic] would have otherwise purchased a currently existing Apple product would wait for the next item to be released, thereby hurting overall sales and negatively effecting [sic] Apple's earnings," Riley said, according to the affidavit Brand swore out for a search warrant of Chen's residence.

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