If it wasn’t December in San Francisco, I’d say someone at Apple’s legal department needs to stay out of the sun. Apple has filed a motion to amend its complaint against the Florida clone maker that has been preloading Mac OS X on generic white box PCs to add a claim of violation of the DMCA, among several other new claims.
All things considered, Apple seems to have the momentum. Psystar’s counterclaims been thrown out, a big blow to the tiny vendor. But Apple came up with a conspiracy theory, alleging that there are corporations and/or individuals behind Psystar, and it may add them as defendants once Apple finds out who they are through the discovery process.
Here’s what the amended complaint says:
18. On information and belief, persons other than Psystar are involved in Psystar’s unlawful and improper activities described in this Amended Complaint. The true names or capacities, whether individual, corporate, or otherwise, of these persons are unknown to Apple. Consequently they are referred to herein as John Does 1 through 10 (collectively the “John Doe Defendants”). On information and belief, the John Doe Defendants are various individuals and/or corporations who have infringed Apple’s intellectual property rights, breached or induced the breach of Apple’s license agreements and violated state and common law unfair competition laws. Apple will seek leave to amend this complaint to show the unknown John Doe Defendants’ true names and capacities when they are ascertained.
A big thank you to Pamela Jones of Groklaw for pointing this out.
It does seem a little odd that a well-known Silicon Valley law firm would take this case, and why Psystar effectively gave Apple the finger and continued to sell its Mac OS-based clones.
This could get fun.
