At long last, Apple files suit against unauthorized Mac-clone maker Psystar.
It would appear that Apple has finally grown tired of Florida based Mac-clone maker Psystar, as they have filed suit against the company at the federal district court for the northern district of California. Looks like this charade, which has been dying a slow death from the beginning, may soon be over.
While many details remain unclear, MacBlogz has been informed that the suit alleges counts for violation of its shrink wrap license, trademark and copyright infringement.
Jorge Espinosa, a lawyer who specializes in domestic and international protection of trademarks and copyrights, has stated:
Psystar had made headlines back in April, introducing a $400 machine running Mac OS X, which was touted as “a low-cost high-performance computing platform.” This was a derivative of the ongoing OSX86 Project aimed at running and maintaining the operating system on standard PCs.
Psystar may have met their ultimate demise following incidences of near provocation, challenging Apple to bring suit against them, stating that the Mac OS X end user license agreement is in violation of anti-trust laws. Ask and ye shall receive. Further exacerbating the situation, was Psystar’s release of OpenServ, a pair of rack mounted computers which closely resembled Apple’s Xserve, unofficially based on Mac OS X Leopard Server.
Frankly, I’m surprised that it has taken Apple this long to take official action. Perhaps they were developing the details of the suit to ensure it is universally understood that using their investment to sell your own hardware is a big no no. Psystar is going to learn some big lessons here, mainly that a suit in Federal Court is a lot more expensive to defend than one in a district Court. It is mind-boggling to think that they ever had one inkling of a notion that they could get away with this.
