Apple and Psystar settle, sort of
Apple has at long last settled a lawsuit with clonemaker Psystar, which has agreed not to install OS X on the systems they sell, but that may not stop the Florida company selling Apple clones.
Details were not immediately available, though Psystar will apparently have to pay damages to Apple, just not until all legal recourses have been completed, i.e. until the end of all possible appeals. It is likely that more information will be available today in filings with the federal court in San Francisco, according to a Computerworld story. Yesterday’s paperwork was interesting enough, in that it makes fairly clear that Psystar will try to continue in business by shifting the installation of OS X from themselves to their clients. The following quote came out of the court yesterday:
Psystar and Apple today entered into a partial settlement that is embodied in a stipulation that will be filed with the Court tomorrow. Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple’s copyright claims in exchange for Apple’s agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded. Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this Court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple’s copyright claims.
The court ruled in November that Psystar had violated bot Apple’s patents and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), making the end of the current trial likely. Apple has asked the judge in the case to close Psystar’s business and award damages of $2.1 million. Apple also asked the court to apply the ban on Psystar’s use of OS X to all versions, not just 1.5, which was the version being sold at the time of the patent infringement arguments.
Psystar is trying to exclude a utility that it sells, called Rebel RFI, which installs OS X on Psystar computers. Thus, the Psystar customer, rather than the company, would be the party installing the prohibited operating system. Apparently, the customer would need to obtain a copy of OS X from somewhere besides Psystar. This issue is still being slugged out in court, both in San Francisco and Florida, so the settlement agreed to yesterday is certainly not the end of the matter. The parasitic legacy of Psystar apparently lives on.
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