Shares in Apple Inc. traded in record territory in Monday's early afternoon session in the wake of a legal victory against would-be Mac cloner Psystar over the weekend. The stock was also buoyed by a general market rally led, in part, by a report from the U.S. Commerce Department showing retail sales in October grew 1.4%.
In the legal battle with Psystar, presiding Judge William Alsup granted a summary judgement to Apple , ruling that Psystar violated Apple's copyrights on Mac OS X when modifying Mac OS X to run on its line of OpenPC unauthorized Mac clones, and that it violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the process.
In the same ruling, Judge Alsup denied Psystar's request for a summary judgement to have Apple's case dismissed. Relief for Apple has yet to be determined, and the judge notably has not yet issued an injunction preventing Psystar from selling its OpenPCs with Mac OS X installed.
Still, the markets seem to have reacted favorably to the ruling, sending Apple's stock higher. As of this writing, AAPL was trading at $207.50, a gain of $3.05 (+1.49%), on moderate volume of 9.3 million shares trading hands. The stock started its rise in the opening minutes of the trading day, where it rose to as high as US$208 per share, but then fell back slightly to profit taking.
On October 21st of this year, AAPL traded as high as $208.7099 per share, before setting its all-time high closing price of $204.92 later that day. The stock immediately began giving back those gains, however, as economic worries took a toll on the broader markets. AAPL began a new rally last week, however, a rally that has yet to peak.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.