Apple Notifies Court, Ready to Tackle Psystar

June 30th, 2009 at 4:50 PM - News by Jeff Gamet

Apple filed a notice with the United States District Court in Northern California that the stay imposed by Psystar's bankruptcy filing has been lifted, and Judge Alsup set a case management conference on July 9. Apple had been waiting for the temporary stay to be lifted so that it could continue its case against Psystar for building and selling Mac clones without authorization.

Judge Alsup will use the hearing to establish the guidelines for discovery requirements based on his prior ruling that Psystar must produce financial documents along with someone competent to testify about the company's finances.

Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar in northern California claiming the company was violating the Mac OS X licensing agreement with end users, and that it was violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with the steps it used to install the Mac operating system on PCs. Psystar has asserted that it isn't doing anything wrong, and that Apple is abusing its position as the only company that makes Mac OS X-compatible computers by blocking competition.

Psystar eventually filed for bankruptcy in Florida, citing its mounting legal debt. The filing automatically stopped Apple's case in California, but Judge Mark, the Judge overseeing the bankruptcy, lifted that stay on June 22, allowing Apple move forward again.

Psystar has until July 2 to file a joint case management order in cooperation with Apple, or to file notice that it is appealing Judge Mark's order lifting the stay.

Since Psystar hasn't been able to pay its legal team, it's unclear whether or not the company has any professional representation to help with its defense against Apple. If not, Psystar could find itself run underfoot in short order.