Apple to Psystar: And Don’t Get Any Bright Ideas About a Black Friday Sale, Either
by John Paczkowski
Posted on November 25, 2009 at 3:00 AM PT
Having diligently hewn Psytar’s legal coffin over the past year and a half, Apple has now taken up its hammer and set about nailing the Mac clone maker into it. This week, the company called for a permanent injunction against Psystar’s operations.
“Psystar…has built its business on infringing Apple’s copyrights and trademarks, free-riding on Apple’s research and development efforts, and trading on Apple’s hard-earned reputation for high quality, innovative and easy-to-use computers,” Apple said in its motion.
“Psystar’s appropriation of Apple’s intellectual property and goodwill has been systematic and brazen, from the name of Psystar’s ‘OpenMac’ computers to its deliberate pirating of Apple’s Mac OS X,” the company added.
“Psystar even seeks to profit from Apple’s efforts to protect its rights, extolling this litigation as Psystar’s ‘opportunity to gain market share,’ in a pitch to venture capitalists….Unless Psystar is permanently enjoined, it will not stop its unlawful conduct–conduct that is causing irreparable harm to Apple’s business, brand and goodwill.”
Catch that? Psystar was pitching VCs on its plan to use Apple’s IP to “compete directly against Apple.” Shameless. Little wonder Cupertino is so intent on burying the would-be rival.
And make no mistake, Apple legal is going to grind Psystar into fine silicon dust. In addition to the injunction, Apple is requesting compensation for legal costs and statutory damages owed under the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And according to Apple’s expert witness, statutory damages for the former should run “between $1500 and $300,000″ and for the latter “between $449,500 and $4,495,000.”
Suffice it to say, that’s quite a bit more than the current value of Psystar’s assets which, according to its bankruptcy filing, are no more than $50,000.
