Apple battles for iPad trademark in China
CBC News
Posted: Feb 28, 2012 6:26 PM ET
Last Updated: Feb 28, 2012 6:24 PM ET
Apple has sold five million tablets in China since launching sales there two years ago. Proview Electronics is now seeking to regain worldwide rights to the iPad name and is suing Apple for alleged fraud and unfair competition. (Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press)
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Apple Inc. will press its legal case Wednesday against a Taiwanese company that claims to own the trademark rights to the iPad name in China.
China is Apple’s second biggest market, with $13 billion US in sales last year.
Two lower courts have already ruled in favour of Proview Electronics, a Taiwanese company with a branch in China, and Apple is now appealing before a provincial high court at Guangzhou.
In 2000, Proview launched its version, which was not a market hit. Apple says it bought the rights from Proview in 2009.
Proview says it is now seeking to regain worldwide rights to the iPad name and is suing Apple in a California court, alleging fraud and unfair competition, hoping to have the deal ruled void.
Proview contends Apple intentionally misled it when it bought iPad trademarks through a special purpose company called IP Application Development Ltd. that concealed it was acting on Apple's behalf.
Experts in the high-tech field say such tactics are common given the secrecy surrounding new product launches, especially Apple's.
Apple has sold 5M tablets in China
Proview also is seeking unspecified compensation, a share of Apple's profits from alleged "unfair competition" and an order for Apple to stop using the trademarks. A Shanghai court last week rejected its demand for an injunction preventing Apple from selling the iPad.
Apple’s tablet computer is made in China in factories with hundreds of thousands of workers, but retailers in some Chinese cities have already stopped selling it until the case is settled.
Since Apple launched the iPad in China two years ago, it has sold five million tablets there.
Sam Yu, an intellectual property lawyer in Beijing, says Apple made a mistake by not waiting until the dispute was resolved before entering the Chinese market.
If the conviction against Apple stands, it could face fines in the billions of dollars. But technology consultant Duncan Clark says the perception of China as a place to do business would also be affected.
“China Inc. would be negatively impacted by anything that hits Apple as an iconic global company having problems in China,” he told CBC News. “That will reverberate onto other Western manufacturers and also Chinese firms, I think.”
With files from The Associated PressShare Tools
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