Apple is behaving just like any really large firm protecting a stream of profits. In my second year of law one day the professor brought several bottles of rum

Apple is behaving just like any really large firm protecting a stream of profits. In my second year of law one day the professor brought several bottles of rum to the class. Why ? Well he had won a case against the incumbent telco. This was great news and very special because he started the case in his 2nd year of law studies. He was 62 years old at the time, having argued the case on and off for 41 years. For this particular firm, this case was not an exception. They paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars (resulting in great rum), but he claims that there were other factors that made this a good deal for them. He wasn't willing to settle, so they couldn't do that, and a court loss might have lead to regulatory action if it had happened sooner, or it might have led to effective rule changes due to precedent. So they put everything they had behind delaying the case, so it would be nothing more than some cute curiosa in the newspapers. And meanwhile their profits from treating people like this keep accumulating (it had to do with what a company is allowed to do to extract payment, but that's only part of it). Apple is probably likewise using a delaying tactic here. Not that I even find it even remotely plausible that this lawyer was selected based on merit, but apple doesn't care about that. They may use it as an argument to get another judge, but that would just be to get another judge, not because they care. Apple has used it's famous negotiation tactics while controlling a significant portion of the market. This is probably illegal, but pays them handsome profits. They're probably trying to make those profits last.