Apple moves to kill second Psystar lawsuit
Apple last week asked a Florida federal judge to kill a lawsuit filed in August by Psystar, saying that the case is a retread of the one in California that has the Mac clone maker on the ropes.
Failing an outright dismissal, Apple demanded that U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler transfer the lawsuit to the California federal court that since July 2008 has supervised the legal battle over Psystar’s practice of installing Mac OS X on its machines.
“This case is a transparent attempt by Psystar Corp. to relitigate the same issues that Psystar and Apple have been contesting before the Honorable William Alsup on the Northern District of California for almost a year and a half,” Apple argued in its motion for dismissal, which was filed with Hoeveler on Nov. 24.
Apple fired the first salvo in the long-running case by suing Psystar in July 2008, accusing it of violating its copyright and software license. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup gave Apple a huge win when he ruled that Psystar had violated Apple’s copyright as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when it installed Apple’s operating system on its Intel-based computers.
Last week, Apple also asked Alsup to shut down Psystar’s Mac clone business and make the Florida firm pay $2.1 million in damages. Alsup has not yet ruled on that motion.
The Florida case administered by Hoeveler was initiated by Psystar in August 2009, when it claimed Apple illegally ties Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, to Mac hardware. In late October, Psystar revised its complaint to ask Hoeveler to rule that its business was legitimate, and to stop Apple from saying otherwise. It was the second lawsuit filed by Psystar in the case; a 2008 suit that accused Apple of breaking multiple antirust laws was tossed out by Alsup more than a year ago.
In its motion to Hoeveler last week, Apple argued that there were no issues in the case — including Psystar’s focus on Snow Leopard — that have not already been discussed, and in some cases decided, in the California lawsuit.
www.computerworld.com
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