Psystar claims 'partial settlement' with Apple, asks to keep selling software

Jake Widman
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 00:13

IT Industry - Market

The Mac clonemaker, which has been locked in legal battle with Apple for more than a year, has told the court that the two companies have reached an agreement on damages. At the same time, Psystar claims it still has the right to sell software that enables customers to make their own Mac clones. 

Psystar and Apple have been fighting over copyright infringement issues almost since the day Psystar started selling generic PCs with Mac OS X preinstalled.

Earlier this month, a California court issued a summary judgment in Apple's favor. Apple followed that up with a request for damages and for a permanent injunction that would bar Psystar from ever selling Mac clones again.

In recent months, however, Psystar filed suit in Florida charging Apple with antitrust violations for locking OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) to its hardware. The original case dealt with Psystar's OS X 10.5 (Leopard) clones, and the company claims its Snow Leopard clones should be treated as a separate issue.

In response, Apple asked the Florida court to either dismiss Psystar's case or transfer it to California, because (Apple argues) it's basically the same case and the Florida filing is just an attempt by Psystar to re-litigate the same issues.

Psystar also released a software package, Rebel EFI, that supposedly simplifies the process of installing Snow Leopard on non-Apple hardware.

And that brings us up to today's filing (PDF from the Groklaw law blog), in which Psystar claims an agreement with Apple on damages and asks that Rebel EFI be explicitly excluded from any injunction.

For more on Psystar's arguments, see Page 2.