Psystar denies accusations of document withholding
updated 10:50 pm EDT, Tue May 5, 2009
Psystar denies Apple claim
In response to Apple's accusations that Psystar is withholding information, the clone maker claims it has submitted any required documents. The company goes further and argues that Apple is not abiding by prior agreements. "The documents produced by Apple are generally publicly available documents that ignore the scope of Psystar's discovery requests," said lawyer Colby Springer in a court filing. Psystar claims copyright and trademark registrations still need to be produced, along with copies of litigation pleadings.
Psystar also argues that it submitted proposed dates for supplemental deposition testimony regarding financial information. The update allegedly occurred well before Apple's recent letter.
Apple accused the Mac cloner of interfering with the discovery phase of its lawsuit, by refusing to produce balance sheets, monthly statements and other documents. During the deposition, Psystar CEO Rudy Pedraza is said to have left roughly 90 questions unanswered. Despite the clone's availability dating back to April 2008, the company allegedly only produced vendor invoices from December 2008 through March 2009.
"Apple's filing serves no other purpose than to serve as fodder for a blogosphere otherwise rabid for new details on this litigation or to incur unnecessary expense on behalf of Psystar," Springer suggests. "Such a filing, in either case, is inappropriate."
Psystar claims it has not produced profit-and-loss, balance and other financial documents because they simply do not exist. Instead, the company has submitted relevant financial statements previously created for payment processing vendors such as Gravity Payments. "Because Apple wants a document to exist does not make it so," the filing reads.
The companies are involved in an ongoing legal battle over Psystar's computer systems that ship with Mac OS X pre-installed. Apple claims the actions violate its end-user licensing agreement, although Psystar is fighting back with a countersuit with claims of anticompetitive practices and an excessively broad interpretation of the copyrights.
The discovery phase should be completed by June 26th, with a formal trial tentatively scheduled for November 9th.
Maybe I was right
05/05, 11:56pm reply
Psystar said these documents do not exist. I don't find that hard to believe. Apple is responsible for SEC filings, Pedraza's inept outfit act like if Apple has no documents from them they will have to work harder to build a case for reimbursement... but Psystar is forgetting the judge in this who is likely to not put up with these shenanigans.
On the other hand, Psystar must have a database of customers so they can upsell to them at a later time. If they have this database there are good chances they have invoices.
Are they really this stupid or do they think they are very clever? It is quite unlikely that lawyers will try to pull the stunts that Psystars lawyers are focusing on. I wonder who has convinced Psystar to try this ludicrous behavior. They have to report yearly to IRS... so are they going to fight them too?
I'm waiting for the hammer (er... gavel) to fall on those bozos in Florida.
Bobfozz
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2008
Maybe I was right
05/05, 11:57pm reply
Psystar said these documents do not exist. I don't find that hard to believe. Apple is responsible for SEC filings, Pedraza's inept outfit act like if Apple has no documents from them they will have to work harder to build a case for reimbursement... but Psystar is forgetting the judge in this who is likely to not put up with these shenanigans.
On the other hand, Psystar must have a database of customers so they can upsell to them at a later time. If they have this database there are good chances they have invoices.
Are they really this stupid or do they think they are very clever? It is quite unlikely that Apple's lawyers will try to pull the stunts that Psystars lawyers are focusing on. I wonder who has convinced Psystar to try this ludicrous behavior. They have to report yearly to IRS... so are they going to fight them too?
I'm waiting for the hammer (er... gavel) to fall on those bozos in Florida.
Bobfozz
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2008
Psystar = Moron
05/06, 06:38am reply
Can't wait to see the outcome of this circus act.
jarod
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Joined: Apr 2005
fly-by-night
05/06, 07:12am reply
what a fly-by-night outfit. Sounds like a company I'd want to buy a computer from... not.
climacs
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Joined: Sep 2001
wording
05/06, 07:31am reply
There probably weren't invoices in the traditional sense. I doubt pystar had an e-commerce package. They probably just received paypal payments and printed packing slips.
They obviously had to have some way of verifying orders and knowing what to ship who. Sounds like they are just playing with semantics.
smashedbanana
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Joined: Jun 2005
this is what happens
05/06, 09:08am reply
when you hire Lionel Hutz from "I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm!" to represent you.
climacs
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Joined: Sep 2001
omg
05/06, 09:35am reply
Maybe the P&L and Balance Sheet don't exist right now in a filing cabinet somewhere, but that doesn't mean they can't select Reports->Company & Standard->... in QuickBooks, or ask their bookkeeper for one. I can't imagine these semantic games going over well with the judge...
sribe
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Joined: Jan 2003
yeah
05/06, 09:49am (4 replies) reply
but everyone thought the company would be dead and gone by now. Why is it taking so long for Apple's lawyers to crush them?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
re: yeah
05/06, 10:15am reply
Free lawyers maybe? This trial cost them more than they would earn in 10 years, no way Psystar can pay that without outside funding.
Apple is probably trying to find out who is behind this.
Peter Bonte
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Joined: Aug 2001
Ahhh
05/06, 11:35am reply
What a saga.
freudling
Mac Elite
Joined: Mar 2005