I think it's great that you're interested in the law, but I think you're missing some basic copyright concepts here. These things don't lend themselves to brie

I think it's great that you're interested in the law, but I think you're missing some basic copyright concepts here. These things don't lend themselves to brief discussion, naturally, but I'll try anyway: 1. What you're looking to enforce is an IP right in industrial design. 2. There is such a thing as a design patent. They last a little over a decade, and cover "ornamental" aspects of a thing, as opposed to utilitarian aspects of it. It's doubtful Apple filed for, or would be entitled to, a design patent in this case. More importantly, publishing images of an object that is protected by a design patent probably isn't an infringement of the patent. 3. In the US, copyright can also protect an industrial design. In this case, even if you assume Apple has a valid copyright on the design of the new phone, it's hard to call the publication of images infringement for at least one reason: there is arguable news value in publishing the image, which falls under the good old "fair use" exception. 4. There is also "trade dress" protection for industrial design, but publishing a representation of an object's design is very different from creating and selling a counterfeit version of the object. Trademark/trade dress protects against someone using the design to confuse consumers about its origin in order to profit. If Gawker Media released a phone that looked just like the new iPhone, it would likely run afoul of this protection...but that isn't the case here. 5. Misappropriation of trade secrets. Now we're talking. Not, strictly speaking, an IP right, but nevertheless there is generally protection for anything that gives a business an advantage over competitors when kept secret (with a big exception for monopolists/cartels, right?) Questions that would need to be answered include: (a) Did Apple undertake "reasonable efforts" to keep the secret? and (b) Should Gawker Media have known that the phone in question was meant to be a secret and had value as a secret and would harm Apple if revealed? Note: The answers may not be as clear cut as they seem. My analysis is really back-of-the-envelope here. IAAL, but this ain't legal advice so don't hold me to it or get confused about whether I represent you – I don't!