When Apple’s rabid lawyers come a knocking, they usually win. HyperMac, an online retailer who provides alternative hardware for your Mac, including external batteries, external hard drives, and stands, has been taken to task by Apple’s lawyers. Hyper Mac will no longer be offering products based on the “MagSafe” technologies, effective November 2, 2010.
The product, an external battery with a MagSafe connector, was being sold without paying the proper licensing fees to Apple for the use of the MagSafe technology. So, if you’re in the market for an external MagSafe battery pack for your Mac, you’ll want to make a purchase soon, because they’ll be “gone for good” once they get yanked from the store on November 2, 2010.
But the HyperMac team seems to have a bit of a leg to stand on. According to Engadget, the HyperMac batteries currently use original MagSafe connectors, directly from Apple, which should eliminate the patent claims. I’m no lawyer, and they mention something about “patent exhaustion” in their article, so you might want to look that up.
Hopefully they can come to some sort of agreement, whether it’s having HyperMac join their “Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad” licensing program for their other products, or settling on a decent licensing fee.
Article Via The Loop
