Apple has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the author and publisher of a new book App Store Confidential, claiming that the former Apple manager reveals business secrets.
Apple says that Tom Sadowski is in breach of his employment contract by revealing “business secrets […] of considerable economic value”…
The German-language book was published yesterday as an ebook and paperback.
Focus reports on Apple’s attempt to block distribution and sale of the book.
Apple told us that Sadowski had breached his contract of employment as an App Store manager, which the company applies ‘equally and fairly’ to all employees.
According to information from the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, Apple believes that the manager Tom Sadowski’s work reveals “business secrets” that are “of considerable economic value” for the company. The book, published by Murmann Verlag in Hamburg, entitled App Store Confidential is a personal testimonial from former manager Tom Sadowski, who headed the App Store’s German business until November 2019. He denies disclosing business secrets in his book.
In a letter, Apple’s lawyers told Sadowski and the publisher to “stop (to) deliver the book” and “recall (to) all copies of the book already in circulation and to destroy (and) destroy all book manuscripts”. Murmann and the author resist this. They have not signed Apple’s injunction.
Not everyone who has read the book seems to agree with Apple that any secrets were revealed. EN24 says that the content of the book is a mix of the ‘banal’ and the ‘obvious.’
Often the content of the book is just banal (“My colleague at the time and today’s Sony Germany boss Patrick not only had a very good nose for this, but also the appropriate cojones to push through the project internally.”). It is conceivable that Apple is bothered by passages in which the author reports, for example, feedback from the company’s headquarters.
