Psystar Suit Against Apple Dismissed

A judge has dismissed Psystar's countersuit against Apple, which claimed the company engaged in anticompetitive practices by preventing companies from selling Mac clones.

A judge has apparently closed part of the story in the legal dispute between Apple and Florida computer maker Psystar, dispmissing Psystar’s counter-suit against Apple. The dispute originated when Psystar, a heretofore essentially unknown small computer maker, began offering the OpenMac earlier this year, bootstrapping Mac OS X onto non-Apple hardware and offering at rates substantially lower than Apple’s typical retail prices. Apple eventually got around to suing Psystar for copyright infringement, trademark and trade infringement, and unfair competition; Psystar countersued Apple, claiming the company was engaging in anticompetitice behavior by preventing third parties from making Mac clones.

Psystar’s argument that Apple—which accounts for a small but growing share of the overall personal computer market—could engage in anticompetive behavior was deemed a long-shot, and Judge William Alsup granted Apple’s motion to throw it out unless Psystar can come up with a better argument by December 8. Psystar sought to define the market as being solely represented by Apple’s Macintosh computers, but Apple countered with common sense, that defining a market by a single brand was, essentally, ludicrous. Judge Alsup agreed, writing in his 19-page ruling that a relevant must by defined by “the group or groups of sellers or producers who have actual or potential ability to deprive each other of significant levels of business.”

Apple’s suit against Psystar is still underway.