Chinese lawsuit seeks $38M, apology from Apple for use of iPad name
A representative from a Chinese company suing Apple in a dispute over the iPad trademark has said it is "demanding an apology" and anticipates Apple will be fined $38 million by a Beijing court over the issue.
In 2006, Apple purchased the iPad trademark from display manufacturer Proview Electronics (Taiwan) for $55,000 by way of a front company called IP Application Development. However, the company claims that the deal did not include the rights to the trademark in China, as those were owned by Proview Technology (Shenzhen), a subsidiary of Proview International in Hong Kong.
After threatening legal action, the company sued Apple in China last year on allegations of trademark infringement. Proview is seeking a total of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in damages.
Apple countersued, arguing that it was the rightful owner of the trademark, but a Chinese court ruled last December in favor of Proview. The iPad maker has since appealed the decision.
According to the Global Times, Proview Shenzhen's lawyer Xie Xianghui said a court in the Xicheng district of Beijing was ready to "slap Apple with a 240 million yuan ($38 million) fine," but the ruling has been delayed due to Apple's appeal.
The Xicheng district administration denied Xie's claims of an impending 240 million yuan ruling. "It is still under investigation, so no official comments on the case can be made yet," a media officer at the publicity office of the administration told the publication.
Proview isn't just looking for money, though. Xie told the China Daily that the company wants Apple to say sorry. "We ask the court to stop selling and marketing for Apple’s iPad in China. We also demand an apology,” Xie said.
The lawyer also revealed that the company has filed separate lawsuits against Apple's authorized retailers and stores in local courts. One such suit will be heard in a court in the Pudong district of Shanghai later this month.
Xiao Caiyuan, another lawyer representing Proview, believes Apple will likely lose its appeal again. "We have prepared well for a long-term legal battle," Xiao said. However, some reports have suggested that Proview is strapped for cash and is looking to pay off some of its debts with money from the lawsuits.
Apple doesn't specifically break out iPad sales figures in China, but the company sold 15.43 million units worldwide last quarter.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
You've stolen billions of dollars of intellectual property over several decades from us. Go F yourself.
Sincerely,
America
?*An ?apology? for buying the trademark from the parent company "Proview Electronics" and not ALSO buying it from the subsidiary "Proview Technology?? If there?s truly some legal reason to buy the name twice from the same company, how did the parent company not make that clear at the start, and why is this labyrinthine technicality a matter for an "apology"?
? Did Proview trademark iPad after (and because of) Apple?s many i-names, notable iMac and iPod? (Did they trademark it just to troll Apple? Many people thought ?iPad? a likely Apple tablet name long, long before Apple revealed the name.)
? Who really wins if Apple takes all iPad operations out of China?
?*$38 million. Didn?t Apple just post the second-best quarter of any company in this history of Earth? (Beaten just once by Exxon when oil peaked, IIRC.)
Everyone knows this company is after a quick buck. That's no secret. Still, I don't know whether to:
A) Applaud this company for pulling a quick one
or
There are some smart cookies working at Apple. How they didn't see this one coming is beyond me.
Yep, I'm leaning toward B.
The situation is made worse when the Chinese slap arbitrary tariffs on non-Chinese goods to distort the playing field even further.
There is a simple solution. Stop making products there. Tell the Chinese to go screw themselves.
The Chinese don't give a crap about intellectual property unless it is claimed to be owned by a Chinese company. There are hundreds of thousands of IP violations by Chinese companies, yet the Chinese authorities will always come down in favour of the Chinese.
The situation is made worse when the Chinese slap arbitrary tariffs on non-Chinese goods to distort the playing field even further.
There is a simple solution. Stop making products there. Tell the Chinese to go screw themselves.
Absolutely... quickly transfer all manufacture to the new and future factories in Brazil and then the products can be tagged "Made in The Americas" which will go down a lot better with most people.
Dear China,
You've stolen billions of dollars of intellectual property over several decades from us. Go F yourself.
Sincerely,
America
your speaking for America now? Maybe we should just bring those jobs back to the US....
Surely the lawyers in China must know IP Application Development (IP.A.D.) ain't the same as iPad!!
It's not that simple.
your speaking for America now? Maybe we should just bring those jobs back to the US....
"Those jobs aren't coming back." - Steve Jobs
That's not to say there's no way out of the recession, it just means the way out is forwards not backwards.
And yet the Chinese authorities refuse to shut down the fake Apple stores in China where they've copied everything down to the t-shirts the employees wear?
I don't think they refused.