US-based Mac clone maker Psystar plans to file its answer to Apple's copyright infringement lawsuit Tuesday in the US as well as a countersuit of its own, alleging that Apple engages in anti-competitive business practices.
Psystar's Open Computer
(Credit: CNET News)
Miami-based Psystar, owned by Rudy Pedraza, will sue Apple under two federal laws designed to discourage monopolies and cartels, the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, saying Apple's tying of the Mac OS to Apple-labeled hardware is "an anti-competitive restrain of trade," according to attorney Colby Springer of antitrust specialists Carr & Ferrell.
Psystar is requesting that the court find Apple's end user licence void, and is asking for unspecified damages.
Springer said his firm has not filed any suits with the Federal Trade Commission or any other government agencies. The answer and countersuit will be filed Tuesday afternoon in the US in the US District Court for Northern California.
Pedraza attended at a press conference his lawyers called to present how the Psystar will defend its its OpenComputer Mac clone, which has been for sale online since April.
Psystar's attorneys called Apple's allegations of Psystar's copyright infringement "misinformed and mischaracterised." Psystar argued that its OpenComputer product is shipped with a fully licensed, unmodified copy of Mac OS X, and that the company has simply "leveraged open source-licensed code including Apple's OS" to enable a PC to run the Mac operating system.
Pedraza says he wanted to make Apple's Mac OS "more accessible" by offering it on less expensive hardware than Apple.
"My goal is to provide an alternative, not to free the Mac OS," said Pedraza. "What we want to do is to provide an alternative, an option ... It's not that people don't want to use Mac OS, many people are open to the idea, but they're not used to spending an exorbitant amount of money on something that is essentially generic hardware."
Apple will have 30 days to respond to Pystar's counter-claim. In the meantime, Pedraza says it will be "business as usual" at company headquarters. Though he said there was a "slight" downward dip in sales once Apple filed its suit, he planned to go ahead with making servers, and soon, a mobile product, which he said will be "like a notebook." But he refused to offer more detail.
Apple declined to comment.
But other legal experts say Psystar faces a tough legal challenge in proving Apple has engaged in antitrust behaviour by loading its software on its own hardware and thereby allegedly harming consumers and competitors.
Psystar's ability to prevail on the issue of having the latitude to load Apple's OS on its own hardware, given it has a licensing agreement with the company, may prove an easier road to hoe, legal experts note.
CNET News' Dawn Kawamoto contributed to this story.
