Apple requests permanent injunction against Psystar

Jake Widman
Thursday, 26 November 2009 05:40

IT Industry - Strategy

Following up on its sweeping victory over Mac clonemaker Psystar on copyright infrigement, Apple has asked the court to permanently enjoin Psystar from selling its products.

The year-and-a-half-old lawsuit is the result of Psystar's selling generic Intel PCs modified to run OS X.

Apple alleged that the modifications infringed its copyrights, while Psystar countered that it was legally entitled to resell OS X on its computers.

Last week the Northern California District Court issued a summary judgment in Apple's favor, basically eviscerating every one of Psystar's arguments.

Now Apple has followed up with a request for a permanent injunction to prevent Psystar from continuing to traffic in OS X, as well as significant statutory damages.

One concern of Apple is that if Psystar gets to keep selling Mac clones, other people might follow. According to the "Memorandum In Support Of Its Motion For Permanent Injunction, Statutory Damages And Reasonable Attorneys’ Fees And Costs," "If Psystar is not permanently enjoined from marketing unlawful circumvention devices, other parties will be encouraged and enabled to continue infringing Apple’s copyrights in Mac OS X....A permanent injunction therefore is necessary to stop Psystar from continuing its unlawful activity and to deter others from doing the same."

Another concern is that the original case dealt with infringement on OS X 10.5 Leopard, and Apple doesn't want Psystar to be able to sell OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard computers.

For more on the damages Apple is requesting, see Page 2.