14 DAY TRIAL // Out of all the claims Apple has put on paper when filing the much awaited suit against the Florida-based Mac cloners, one in particular stands out as quite unusual. Besides accusing Psystar of Copyright infringement, Contributory and induced copyright infringement, Trade dress infringement, Trademark dilution and more, Apple allegedly wants the company to call up on its customers and have them send back the Leopard-running OpenComputers.
"Not only does Apple want Psystar to stop selling Mac clones, it also wants Psystar to recall ALL the Mac-clone systems sold since April," ZD Net's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes. According to Engadget, that has done some digging up analyzing the suit's allegations, "Psystar's subpar machines were causing harm to the OS X brand" right from the moment they were first advertised. "Apple says that the Mac OS X user interface is well known to consumers and has become associated with Apple to the point where it is protectable trade dress - and that Psystar infringed on Apple's trade dress rights when it shipped Open Computers that contained OS X," the tech-based site notes. "It's around this point where you get the sense that Apple's going for the jugular."
Back to Kingsley-Hughes' analysis of the suit, the author reckons Psystar will not be in the clear if it only stops selling the OpenComputer and OpenServ. In Hughes' opinion, "Apple seems to want to take things a lot further than that." One reason to believe this is the case is Apple's claim that "Psystar's actions have been committed with intent to damage Apple and to confuse and deceive the public" and that "as a direct and proximate result of Psystar's infringing conduct, Apple has suffered and will continue to suffer lost sales and profits in an amount not yet fully ascertained in an amount to be proven at trial," as the suit alleges.
For its part, Psystar claims Apple is forcing people to run OS X on its proprietary hardware, which, the Florida-based cloners say, is a violation of antitrust laws. Even if proven true, this can't fight off dozens of allegations from Apple's lawyers, who can - and will - use Psystar's actions of modifying Leopard to run on regular PC hardware against them.
All in all, Apple wants an injunction against the further sale of Psystar machines, is asking Psystar to recall every single Open machine sold (honestly, would you hand the machine back?), and is demanding monetary damages along with attorney fees and costs. It is fair to assume that once all this is over, should Apple win, Psystar will be bankrupt.