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Posted on 12/01/2009 3:00:51 PM PST by Swordmaker
First on AI: Clone Mac maker Psystar has agreed to pay Apple $2.7 million in damages in a deal that will likely bring the company's sale of unauthorized computers preinstalled with Mac OS X to an end.
In a joint filing from Apple and Psystar Corporation in a San Francisco court Tuesday, Psystar agreed to pay Apple $1,337,500 in damages over copyright infringement, breach of contract, and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Additional damages and attorneys fees amounted to another $1,337,500, bringing the total to $2.675 million. Psystar had already lost those complaints in a summary judgment from Judge William Alsup in November.
In exchange for the payout, Apple has agreed to not refile claims of trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, trademark dilution, state unfair competition, and common law unfair competition -- items that were not ruled on by Alsup in his summary judgment.
The agreement was signed by attorneys James G. Gilliland, representing Apple, and K. A. D. Camara, counsel for Psystar.
Both parties have also agreed that the terms of the deal will not be argued in favor of or against the venue in the ongoing, separate lawsuit filed by Psystar against Apple in Florida. In that suit, Psystar has alleged that Apple is engaged in "anticompetitive attempts to tie Mac OS X Snow Leopard to its Macintosh line of computers."
But a separate filing from Psystar Monday indicates that the Florida corporation hopes to continue to sell its Rebel EFI product. The $50 application, released in October, allows individuals to install Mac OS X on unauthorized third-party machines. It is compatible with Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. That issue will likely be contended by Apple, which previously alleged that the Rebel EFI product amounted to "trafficking in circumvention devices."
At question is Psystar's ability to pay the $2.7 million in damages. The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, only to emerge from Chapter 11. But Psystar's total assets, according to court filings, are said to be less than $50,000. Apple, in seeking a permanent injunction to prevent Psystar sales, told the court last week that it believed the company would be unable to pay any damages.
"Even if Psystar could pay damages, the harm to Apple's brand, reputation and goodwill is unquantifiable," Apple said.
The beginning of the end for Psystar came in November, when Alsup ruled in favor of Apple on multiple counts in a summary judgment. Had the two parties not come to an agreement, trial was set to start in January 2010 over the remaining issues.
Looks like total victory for Apple here.
And does Psystar even have $2.7MM?
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That's a good question. In May, during their aborted bankruptcy fiasco, Psystar claimed $260,000 in liabilities, and discounting an inflated $3 million claimed value for their Rebel OS X Decryption software portfolio, less than $50K of actual liquid and real assets.
Maybe the mystery backer does and is willing to pay the $2.7 million to stop this charade before the court pulls aside the curtain and reveals the guy pullinng the strings of the Pedraza Brothes' Psy(star)Op Puppet Theater and reveals deeper pockets for Apple to empty.
Los Hermanos Psystar will be back. They have a cousin who is real good with Macs
Are you going to ask your buddy in the White House to file RICCO charges against Shyster Compoopers...
I guess they’ve taught Apple a lesson it’ll never forget. ;’)
Los Hermanos and their cuz will be back under a different name and with their cuz owning it. Like I said, he is pretty good himself with Macs and hacks. You might as well call the upcoming new venture PommeTech Associates. Los Hermanos will be on the books as working for him (their cousin)They are fed up with being frontmen
Forget Psystar, Apple can keep that name for marketing its line of tablets.
With the Psystar case as a precedent, closing down PommeTech will be a quick exercise. A cease and desist letter should be sufficient... especially if the corporate paper show anybody named Pedraza associated as employees, especially as officers or investors... if so, the Federal marshalls will be there with handcuffs.
Every case is a new case. If PommeTech is set up in Tennessee that’s a whole new jurisdiction. You are under the illusion that the Jesse Jobs gang has some kind of global reach and can jam anyone, anywhere at anytime by waving some piece of paper from the 9th Circus Court (or a court under them)
My advice to the Jesse Jobs gang is to spend more time earthquake proofing your HQ and less time suing your competition, the little guy who make clones. At any rate The Jesse Jobs Gang will never see dime one from Psystar
No, it won’t. It’s a Federal court injunction, which means it’s valid anywhere in the US. Federal Marshals time for any new attempts.
Of course, Psystar was quite stupid to do it this way. There was a perfectly legal way for them to do this and they just ignored it.
New name=new game
And new Co run by cousin
So how could Psystar have sold clones legally?
Easy - assemble the compatible hardware, say that it is possible to install OS X on it and just sell it out that way. They could even have included their bootloader as a generic tool to assist in installing operating systems (I think).
The mistake they made was bundling OS X in the box.
New company run by cousin, by the way, would be covered by the original injunction.
lulz
The mistake they made was bundling OS X in the box.
Perhaps others will make that their business model
I suspect Apple would sue if a bootloader CD was sold with the hardware
Also you have many people who have never installed an OS and don't want to
They want to by a verified complete computer
So this clone/hardware seller would lose half his customers
There are a few proven hackintosh configurations with nVidia graphics cards and Gigabyte and Asus boards
What part of FEDERAL COURT do you fail to understand, Dennis? FEDERAL court rulings are precedent setting and are not ignored by other circuits. I don't think you are an idiot. So don't post like one. In September, Apple asked Judge Alsup of the Ninth Circuit in California to pre-empt the 3rd Circuit case in Florida in re Psystar v. Apple... he declined... but he could have ordered the case moved to California and the Florida judge would have been unable to do anything about it because the California case had precedence. Alsup just did not want to re-open discovery and add Snow Leopard to the instant case.
Judge Alsup's judgement, however, seems to be inclusive of Snow Leopard as well as of the Rebel product... and most likely will make the Florida case moot as much of the copyright of Snow Leopard is included in Leopard... and therefore will be covered by the injunctions issued by Judge Alsup.
My advice to the Jesse Jobs gang is to spend more time earthquake proofing your HQ and less time suing your competition, the little guy who make clones. At any rate The Jesse Jobs Gang will never see dime one from Psystar
What I find strange about this settlement agreement is that Apple proposed a $2.1 million dollar settlement to Judge Alsup... and Psystar is proposing (and that is all that this so-called "settlement" is is a "proposal" by Psystar, just as were Apple's proposed injunctions introduced last Thursday) a $2.7 Million dollar settlement. Why are they offering $600,000 MORE than Apple was asking for?
What the Ninth Circuit Court rules on is precedent in its own jurisdiction. Outside the Ninth another Circuit will look at a Ninth’s ruling. They will certainly consider it. But ultimately are not obligated to make the same ruling. The litigants can then try the Supreme Court to sort out the two different rulings on similar cases. One ruling by Ninth and the other by (lets say) the Eleventh which is Florida which is where lets say the Pedrazos start a new venture with their cousin running the show. My advice to Pedrazos is sue Apple first next time so that the case is in the Eleventh’s jurisdiction and that of their subsidiaries
http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/
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