Is it just us, or has Apple's legal team been hotter than a pistol lately? That billion-dollar patent infringement lawsuit filed by Imatec was finally dismissed in January. Over the past several months, Apple secured preliminary injunctions in three out of four of its suits against the iMac cloners and settled those cases favorably. And now, according to an Apple press release, the company's legal eagles have done it again: Microware's "OS-9" suit against Apple has been dismissed as well. Apple Legal: the irresistible force in search of an immovable object.

Some of you may have forgotten all about the Microware suit by now-- it didn't exactly get a ton of press. (Perhaps Microware should have hired away Imatec's Hanoch Shalit to issue press releases every fifteen minutes.) Basically, Microware objected to the way that Apple called its latest operating system release "Mac OS 9," since Microware has held the registered trademark "OS-9" for over a decade. What's more, Microware's OS-9 is also an operating system that runs on PowerPC processors, even though it's targeted at a very different market. Still, we'd originally heard that Apple was not going to call its next OS release "Mac OS 9," precisely because of the Microware product. Apple surprised us by using the name-- and Microware didn't surprise us by filing suit. Luckily for Apple, the court shot down Microware's request for a preliminary injunction and instead dismissed the case, saying that Apple used "good faith" in the use of the name and had no intention of capitalizing on OS-9's reputation. A MacNN special report has plenty of details on the case and its resolution for those who want to get caught up.

So Apple's lawyers prevail again. Note to Steve Jobs: rein in the legal team a bit, or have 'em throw a few minor cases or something. All this positive press is sure to attract the attention of a certain beleaguered software giant with deep pockets; the last thing you want is to find out that your whole stable of lawyers has been hired away to handle the appeal after what is almost certain to be a crushing defeat in "Redmond Justice." C'mon, think about it... Microsoft's current "lawyers" fumbled that case so badly, the higher-ups have got to be considering replacing the whole team with fresh talent. Granted, Apple's recent cases have been a lot easier to win than Microsoft's (it's amazing what being in the right can do), but still, we figure Steve had better keep the Cupertino Dream Team well-paid...