Judge dismisses counterclaim against Apple by Mac clone vendor Psystar

Apple has scored a partial victory in its legal dispute with Mac clone vendor Psystar. Judge William Alsup at the California Northern District Court dismissed a counterclaim made by Psystar in late August. According to reports in the US media, the judge considered Psystar's argument that Apple's strategy of coupling an operating system with a specific type of computer did not prevent competition as insufficient. Psystar now has 20 days to substantiate its counterclaim.

Initially, Psystar offered normal PCs called OpenMacs, but changed the name to OpenComputer last April. The machines were supposed to be shipped with Mac OS X pre-installed on request. Then, the clones vendor also offered rack mounted servers which offered a pre-installed Mac OS X 10.5 server. Citing infringements of intellectual property rights, licences, trademarks and patents, Apple filed a complaint requesting that Psystar be ordered to pay damages, reimburse legal costs, cease to sell its computers and recall all units sold at the California Northern District Court in mid July.

(lghp)