Apple is facing what seems like a never-ending onslaught of imitators in the computer market. With the increased popularity of Apple Computers and the Mac OSX, many small computer companies are trying to emulate their success. They do this by creating their own computer, similar in many ways to Apple’s offerings, and pre-installing the Mac operating system.

One such company that Apple has sued over these claims is getting ready to go to trial. Psystar, a company based out of Florida, retained a law firm to deal with the lawsuit. Another company, Open Tech Inc., is the most recent imitator and Apple has yet to take legal action against them.

We will see how this plays out, but in the end it will most likely be a long legal battle that Apple will win. Their technology is protected in such a way that the operating system is safe from potential competitors or knockoffs. The physical design of the computers is less of an issue than the Mac OSX that will run off of them. For more information, read this article on ZDNet.