Engadget is reporting on a new court filing that shows Psystar is to pay Apple $1.34 million , and another $1.34 million in lawyer fees, as part of the settlement agreement.
This agreement has Psystar covering the cost of five separate claims made by Apple in which the court ruled in Apple’s favor. Apple in turn, will drop six additional claims involving trademark infringement, which were not involved in the earlier ruling. Psystar is not required to pay up until all legal appeals have been processed.
Now, considering Apple and Psystar are currently engaged in pretty much the exact same case in Florida over Snow Leopard, we’d say that this agreement isn’t much more than a way for both sides to save money and move on to that fight: Apple’s already won the bulk of its case against Psystar in California, and spending money to litigate trademark claims we thought were weak when we first read them doesn’t really buy Steve any leverage he doesn’t already have, while Psystar probably needs to scrimp all the coin it can right now.
Computerworld world is reporting that in addition to the settlement, Apple requested last week, a permanent injunction that would prevent Psystar from selling their generic PCs with Mac OS X installed. Recently however, Psystar filed a motion that argues that the Rebel EFI software released by the company which allows customers to install their own copy of OS X on Psystar’s other certified hardware, not be included in any injunction awarded by the court.
By excluding Rebel EFI from any injunction, Psystar seems to be conceding Apple’s copyright victory, and that it can live with a ban on preinstalling Snow Leopard. If that tactic works, Psystar’s plan appears to be to shift the responsibility of installing Mac OS X onto customers. Psystar would presumably sell Rebel EFI to customers without a corresponding copy of Mac OS X, require those customers to obtain a copy of the operating system elsewhere, and then use the utility to install and run the purchased copy of Snow Leopard.
Psystar spelled out its argument for letting it continue to market Rebel EFI, and presumably Snow Leopard-ready computers that, with Rebel EFI’s help, could be configured to run Mac OS X.
It appears that after being dealt a severe blow by Apple, Psystar’s only remaining strategy is to give customers the tools to install Mac OS X themselves on Psystar manufactured machines.
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