Psystar to fight on?

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 13:40

IT Industry - Strategy

Mac cloner Psystar may have lost its appeal, but there are signs that the company will take further legal action in the matter.

Psystar, a Florida-based company that was building computers from selected generic parts and selling them with retail copies of Mac OS X, was beaten in court by Apple and then lost almost all its arguments on appeal. The only issue returned to the lower court was the matter of whether certain court documents should have been sealed.

But in an interview with Computerworld, the company's lawyer, KAD Camera, indicated that Psystar will either seek a full bench review of the appeal or a Supreme Court hearing.

Mr Camera expressed the view that the appeal court ruling on the case means the Ninth Circuit and the Fifth Circuit have come to conflicting decisions regarding the legality of tying software to the same manufacturer's hardware.

He also noted that a win by Psystar could open the gates for other manufacturers such as Dell to offer systems that run OS X, but declined to answer if parties other than Psystar are involved in the case. He would only say that he was not representing Dell.

There has been much speculation over the years - but no evidence - that Psystar had been positioned as a stalking horse for one or more other parties interested in building and selling 'Mac compatible' computers without having to obtain a licence from Apple.