Apple-Psystar legal battle hots up

The legal battle between Apple and Psystar over copyright infringement charges heated up this week with the Florida based Mac clone manufacturer taking testimony from Apple head of marketing Phil Schiller and announcing it has lined up other execs for next week.

The dispute rests over Psystar’s manufacture of so-called “Open Computers” which it preloads with Mac OS X Leopard operating system. Apple has argued that the licensing agreement for its OS does not allow for third party installations.

The agreement reached by the two this week to allow Psystar lawyers to take depositions from top Apple executives signals a new stage in the legal dispute and will see the Florida-based firm try to gain the upper hand through the testimonies.

During the coming week, Psystar’s lawyers will grill Mike Culbert, the senior director of Mac hardware; Simon Patience, head of Apple's core operating system development and Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering.

Psystar has also gone to the unusual step of asking anyone with an interest in the case to send in suggested questions for it to ask the Apple executives.

In a blog posting, entitled “A taste of their own medicine”, the firm declared: “After numerous depositions of Psystar employees and associates the shoe is finally on the other foot, oh the joy!”

“Feel free to post your questions as comments or email them directly to press@psystar.com if you feel that the question would be better unleashed via surprise attack,” the post continued.

“Bear in mind that we might not be able to release the answers to said questions until the conclusion of this litigation (re: Apple’s Super Secret Protective Order) but we are still allowed to use them amongst our legal counsel and in court.”