Miami-based Psystar has hired Carr & Ferrell, a Palo Alto firm that specializes in intellectual property disputes and has been involved in law suits against Apple in the past, according to court documents. Partner Robert Yorio will be defending Psystar along with attorneys Christine Watson and Colby Springer.

According to InformationWeek, Yorio has beaten Apple in the past, winning a $10 million settlement for Burst.com in 2007 after the company accused Apple of violating its streaming media patents. He has also got Burst.com a $60 million from Microsoft.

A stipulation filed on Monday in court gives Psystar until August 18 to respond to Apple's claim that it is violating copyright and trademark law as well as its end-user license agreement by installing Mac OS X Leopard on its OpenComputer and OpenServe Mac-clone products.

Psystar began shipping its Mac-clone PCs in April amid speculation that the company was a hoax as it changed addresses several times over the course of several days.

Psystar, however, as its action demonstrates, is very real and about to take on what makes Apple, well, Apple -- the closed-door, closed-lipped megastar of the computer world that so far able has been to make sure that it gets to choose who gets to come to the Apple party.