Apple Convinces Court To Lift Psystar Legal Logjam

According to AppleInsider, Apple late last week managed to convince U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida to allow its copyright infringement case against Psystar to continue even though Psystar filed for bankruptcy last month.

Apple's case against Psystar had been delayed since Psystar's May 21 Chapter 11 filing to give the court time for review, but the latest court ruling puts the case back in motion and forces Psystar to mount a legal defense. But that will put further financial pressure on Psystar, which in its Chapter 11 filing estimated its total debt at more than $250,000, about a third of which is payable to its legal firm Carr & Farrell.

The Apple-Psystar legal saga began last July when Apple filed a copyright infringement suit against Psystar for selling a $399 Mac clone with OS X preinstalled. Psystar filed a countersuit accusing Apple of antitrust violations, which was dismissed in November by a federal judge in California. Since then, Psystar has come up with increasingly bizarre claims and follow-up suits aimed at convincing the court to break Apple's stranglehold on Mac OS hardware.

Last December, Psystar accused Apple of illegally manipulating OS X so that it wouldn't boot correctly on non-Apple hardware, and later claimed that Apple never actually obtained a copyright for OS X, and therefore couldn't sue Psystar for copyright infringement.

In March, the defiant Psystar launched Open(3), a $599 Mac clone preinstalled with OS X. The brazenness of Psystar's moves had led some industry watchers to speculate that the company has backing from Apple's competitors, and that these backers eventually withdrew financial support after realizing the case wasn't winnable.

Apple isn't suing Psystar for financial gain, but is more likely interested in sending a message to other would-be Mac clone makers. And that's a good thing, because as all too many debtors are finding out these days, trying to get money from bankrupt companies is like beating one's head against the wall.