Rumors was first to break the confirmed rumor that Apple acquired ownership of the CUPS code back in February. At the same time Michael R. Sweet, the creator of CUPS was hired by Apple as well. According to Mr. Sweet in a post on CUPS.org, existing GPL2/LGPL2 licensing terms will remain in place. Michael will continue developing and supporting his work for Apple; Infinite Loop will grant some license exceptions for developers provided they fall into the right category.

Sample filters and backends included with CUPS may also be used to develop Apple software/Mac OS X without releasing the full source code. Volunteers will provide free support via the CUPS Newsgroups and mailing lists. Apple and major Linux distributors will provide support for their respective customers.

Common UNIX Printing System, CUPS, and the CUPS logo have been trademarked by Apple, Inc. Apple Inc. must be contacted directly for written permission to use the trademarked logos for derivative works. Any direct port or binary distribution of CUPS may still be freely used.