The Santa Clara-based personal computer and Internet media giant announced this week that it is suing "John Doe," an apparently as of yet unknown individual, for posting company trade secrets on the Web.

Apple wouldn't say where the secrets had been posted, but many in the Apple-centric community have suggested some likely destinations, including AppleInsider and MacOs Rumors, which have both faced legal backlash from Apple in the past for allowing users to post "sensitive" information on Apple products. There have also been suggestions that a user posted secrets, including specs on the recently debuted G4, on a personal Geocities site as far back as February. The suit says Santa Clara-based Yahoo! Inc., which owns Geocities, has been subpoenaed for the IP address of the page in question.

"Apple is informed and believes and alleges that defendant Doe 1 is an individual," says the suit. "Apple does not know the true name of defendant Doe 1 and therefore sues this defendant pursuant to Section 474 of the California Code of Civil Procedure."

The suit goes on to say Doe 1, perhaps accompanied by Does 2 through 25, has published information on future Apple products " on publicly accessible areas of the Internet" since February.

"Public knowledge of future products often lessens sales of existing Apple products," continues the suit document.

This is not the first time Apple has faced legal dilemmas from product information being posted online. Several months before last month's MacWorld Expo, Apple attorneys issued letters to various Mac news sites ordering them to "cease and desist" the publication of "sensitive trade information." Some Apple-related sites, including MacInTouch.com and AppleInsider.com, had been previewing photos of the new toaster-sized Mac Cube that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had planned to unveil for the first time during his MacWorld keynote. The issue was never taken to court, and the Web sites removed the photos.

A press contact at Apple said the company could not comment further at this time.

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