Apple wins major victory in iPod lawsuit as two plaintiffs are dismissed

There’s been a surprising new turn of events in the antitrust case against Apple now happening in Oakland, California. Amid questions about the credibility of the plaintiffs in the class action suit, Apple lawyers have filed to dismiss the case altogether. The plaintiffs’ attorneys today withdrew the name of one of the two people who claimed harm, leaving just one New Jersey woman as the sole member of the class action.

Apple lawyers have informed the court hearing a $350 million class-action lawsuit over iPod music software that plaintiff lawyers might have a serious problem: Their lead clients don’t own the products they’re suing over. The San Jose Mercury-News reports that after named plaintiff Marianna Rosen testified in the case on Wednesday, Apple lawyers did the logical thing and checked to see if she owned an iPod produced during the class period between September 2006 and March 2009. Turns out she doesn’t, Apple says. The serial number on her iPod shows it was purchased in July 2009, those lawyers said in a letter to the court, contrary to her testimony that she purchased it in 2008. Another named plaintiff, Melanie Wilson, also bought the wrong iPods or had the wrong software installed, those lawyers say.