Psystar Vows to Fight on After Appeals Court Upholds Permanent Injunction

Posted 09/30/2011 at 4:05pm | by Pulkit Chandna

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A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday dealt an almost mortal blow (more on the “almost” after the jump) to former hackintosh vendor Psystar’s remaining chances of a comeback in its legal battle against Apple. Dismissing Psystar’s appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a 2009 district court decision to award Apple a permanent injunction against Psystar’s infringement of Mac OS X.

Even though this latest decision seems like a coup de grâce for Psystar, the Miami-based company’s lawyer K.A.D. Camera insists it's “far from over” and there’s “at least one more round, perhaps two.” Psystar could file a petition for rehearing en banc, asking the Ninth Circuit to consider a rehearing of the appeal by all the judges on the bench. As per the Ninth Circuit’s rules, an en banc court does not comprise all of its judge’s but an 11 judge panel.

Another alternative for Psystar is to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Camera, Psystar is seriously considering this option as “the Ninth Circuit is now squarely in conflict with the Fifth Circuit on copyright misuse.”

"The Fifth Circuit held that it is copyright misuse to use copyright to limit your software to your hardware, while the Ninth Circuit held that Apple can do just that,” Camera told IDG in an interview. "The principal issue in the case is Apple's limiting Mac OS X to its own hardware. But this is more than only Psystar. It could determine whether the likes of Dell can sell machines that run OS X."

Image: Psystar