Psystar Wins a Skirmish in Mac Clone Legal Battle

A federal judge in California ruled last week that a Florida-based maker of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) clones may move ahead with its attempts to prove that Apple has violated federal copyright laws.

Psystar has accused Apple of misusing its copyrights associated with OS X to keep Psystar from manufacturing its Mac clones, called "OpenComputers," capable of running the operating system.

The dispute between Apple and Psystar started in July, when Apple sued the smaller company for copyright infringement. Psystar responded with a claim that Apple held a monopoly in the market for Mac computers. The claim was thrown out by a federal judge in San Francisco.

That's when Psystar issued counterclaims alleging copyright misuse.

Apple spokesperson Susan Lundgren told MacNewsWorld that Apple doesn't discuss pending litigation and declined further comment.

Copyright Misuse

It's unclear whether U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup's decision has actually breathed new life into Psystar's counterclaims.

"The judge is going to give Psystar all the procedural leeway he can so that Psystar won't be able to later say, 'We only lost because we weren't allowed to do this or that,'" said Chris Collins, an intellectual property attorney with Vanderpool, Frostick & Nishanian. "This is a very common thing for judges in commercial cases to do. It doesn't reflect the judge's feelings about the merits of the case. The judge isn't going to put any artificial restraints on Psystar's ability to prove its case."

Apple has argued that Psystar cannot use copyright misuse as a counterclaim, but Alsup dismissed that argument, citing a previous case -- Practice Management Information Corp. v. the American Medical Association.

"Apple contends that copyright misuse may only be asserted as a defense, not as a counterclaim," the judge wrote in court documents. "This order is unconvinced, however, that misuse may never be asserted as a counterclaim for declaratory relief. Psystar may well have a legitimate interest in establishing misuse independent of Apple's claim against it, for example, to clarify the risks it confronts by marketing the products at issue in this case or others it may wish to develop."

Odds Against Psystar

It may be difficult for Psystar to prevail when all is said and done.

"[The case] will depend on what Psystar is able to find in discovery," Collins told MacNewsWorld. "[Psystar] almost has to find a smoking gun. They will almost need to show that Apple intended to exploit its copyrights in an impermissible way."

Apple, meanwhile, will focus on the meat of its claim -- the fact that Psystar has copied significant portions of the Mac operating system to run its Mac clones, Collins said.

"That's all [Apple] needs to do," he said. "Psystar will try to muddy the waters by saying Apple is trying to keep us from making these clones by overreaching its copyright."

If Psystar were to prevail in court, it would still need permission from Apple to use the Mac OS. That seems unlikely, to say the least, so even winning the latest trick may not save the game for Psystar.