[iApologize] Is iPad 3 in Jeopardy? Apple Could Lose $1.6B in China Trademark Lawsuit

BEAT LA · Feb 7, 2012

Proview Technology, which currently uses the "iPad" name on several of its products such as computer monitors, stands to win $1.6 billion and an apology from Apple, the creator of the iPad tablet, for allegedly infringing upon Proview's trademarked name.

Proview International, which owns subsidiaries Proview Technology in Shenzhen and Proview Electronics in Taiwan, originally registered the name "iPad" in Taiwan and in mainland China in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Apple bought Proview's iPad trademark for $55,000 in 2009 via a company called IP Application Development, but that deal only applied to the trademark in Taiwan. Later, Proview chairman Yang Rongshan said Proview did not know IP Application Development was connected to Apple.

"It is arrogant of Apple to just ignore our rights and go ahead selling the iPad in this market, and we will oppose that," Yang said. "Besides that, we are in big financial trouble and the trademarks are a valuable asset that could help us sort out part of that trouble."

Proview threatened to sue Apple in October 2010 "for damages in China and in the U.S.," according to Yang. Reports at the time said Proview registered the iPad name in the EU, China, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico, while Apple bought the U.S. iPad trademark from Fujitsu in March.

Proview finally sued Apple in 2011, and Apple retailiated with a counter-suit of its own, arguing that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company was the rightful owner of the iPad trademark. Apple ended up losing that case.

"Their copy infringement is very clear," a Proview representative said. "The laws are still there, and they sell their products in defiance of laws. The more products they sell, the more they need to compensate."

Apple appealed the case, but the Xicheng district court administration claims the ruling is "still under investigation, so no official comments on the case can be made yet."

Depending on the court's findings, Apple could be fined anywhere from $38 million to the $1.6 billion that Proview is seeking. Yet, more than money, Proview wants Apple to apologize.

"We ask the court to stop selling and marketing for Apple's iPad in China," said Xie Xianghui, Proview Technology's lawyer. "We also demand an apology."

Proview has filed separate lawsuits in local courts in two Chinese cities, Shenzhen and Huizhou, against Apple's authorized retailers and stores.

"We are starting with these two cities, and if we are successful in getting iPad sales stopped, we will consider going after Apple resellers elsewhere in China," Xie said.

Officials close to the situation believe Apple will lose its appeals.
"We have prepared well for a long-term legal battle," said Xiao Caiyuan, another lawyer representing Proview Technology.

The back-and-forth disputes will likely derail Apple's plans to build more Apple Stores in China, which didn't receive its first retail store from Apple until 2008. In 2011, six Apple Stores in Shanghai and Beijing produced the highest average revenue of any of its 361 global stores.

"Apple is such a Goliath and has a good image, so people wouldn't imagine that Apple could possibly infringe on our intellectual property rights," said Xiao.

In order to legally use the "iPad" name in China, Apple needs Proview to authorize a transfer of the trademark for mainland China. Without a settlement from Proview, Apple stands to take a significant hit in the world's second largest personal computer market.

Proview's attorney Xie hopes her client and Apple "can resolve [the dispute] through peaceful talks," but in the meantime, Proview seeks to immediately block the sale of iPads in the two Chinese cities.

Meanwhile, Apple is busy prepping its next iPad, presumably called "iPad 3," which is said to debut towards the end of February and go on sale in early March. Citing sources from within the company's foreign supply chains, the iPad 3 will run on an upgraded operating system, iOS 5.1, and feature longer battery life, improved cameras, LTE capabilities, and double the pixel density of its predecessor, with a display resolution somewhere in the ballpark of 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. The next-gen tablet is also said to run on a new quad-core A6 chip, which doubles the power and speed of the A5 chip currently found in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

Even though the Proview lawsuit could cost Apple a considerable amount of pocket change, the cases themselves only ask Apple stop selling the iPad in China's retailers and stores. There is no mention over Apple's continued investment in the name on future products, so Apple will likely keep the iPad name on its next tablet and hope to settle with Proview.

Apple announced its best quarter in the company's 35-year history on Jan. 24, enjoying a net income of $13.1 billion on $46.3 billion in revenue. In the final 14 weeks of 2011, Apple sold 15.4 million iPads, bringing the grand total to about 47.5 million iPads in 2011. China revenue, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, is one of the biggest markets for Apple, accounting for more than 16 percent of the company's annual earnings.

"It's our fastest growing major region by far," Cook said.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/technolo...d-lose-16-billion-in-china-trademark-lawsuit/
Click to expand...

Does this company really deserve a cent, or an apology? Didn't Apple buy all of their registrations when they purchased the company trough IP Application Development? Was it shady business practices by Apple to purchase it in this manner obviously to save money? I think a more honest approach would have made both parties more open about what they wanted/were getting in the sale.

OT: Apple just announced a requirement for all app developers to start using retina images in the app store...possibly the first step in making the 3GS obsolete.

wreck · Feb 7, 2012

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Anti-Trust laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.

wreck · Feb 7, 2012

wreck said: ↑

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Trademarking laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Fixed

roflmcwaffles · Feb 7, 2012

wreck said: ↑

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Anti-Trust laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts.

Precision340 · Feb 7, 2012

wreck said: ↑

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Anti-Trust laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

lol.. so true!! ... oh the irony!!! :grin:

REEKO_HTOWN · Feb 7, 2012

Breaking news: Apple opens new factories in Sagapore!

Yonkers · Feb 7, 2012

wreck said: ↑

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Anti-Trust laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

This company is in Taiwan. Not China.
And don't make Apple out to be such cute cuddly puppies. If they infringed then they infringed. Apple also stole the iPhone name and had to settle in a lawsuit with Cisco.

Invisible Fan · Feb 7, 2012

Karma against Apple for using indentured servants at cut rate prices.

...except those peons won't ever see a dime of it.

...Some kind of karma like some kind of irony.

....Uhhh, China.

Cowboy_Bebop · Feb 7, 2012

wreck said: ↑

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Anti-Trust laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Get an education boy. China and Taiwan aren't the same.

Pole · Feb 7, 2012

modern extortion

though Apple likes to compete as much in the courts as they do in the marketplace.

Deckard · Feb 7, 2012

Apple doesn't like to lose, and perhaps in the end they won't, but they can afford to shell out the $1 billion plus as long as they can keep the iPad name. They have tens of billions sitting around collecting pennies.

Cohete Rojo · Feb 8, 2012

wreck said: ↑

Way to go China. You are one of the top countries in terms of piracy of ALL kind of products and now you want money because you're name was used. Suddenly there are International Anti-Trust laws. Give me a break...

Not much of an apple guy but this is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Quite like people in the US pursuing civil claims against BP due to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill when the US is one of the worst polluters in the world in terms of oil production. Hahaha, irony is so funny.

wizkid83 · Feb 8, 2012

Serves Apple right, suing Samsung for the shape of rectangle. I've said it before, they're the P-Diddy of tech, never do anything truly original, but give enough twist on something that works and makes it palatable for the masses.

Also it's a Taiwanese company that's suing, Apple just do what they had to do in main land to make it go away. That's just laziness on their part.

Yonkers · Feb 8, 2012

Cohete Rojo said: ↑

Quite like people in the US pursuing civil claims against BP due to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill when the US is one of the worst polluters in the world in terms of oil production. Hahaha, irony is so funny.
Click to expand...

Same people who started multiple threads over megaupload and btjunkie, etc.

BEAT LA · Feb 8, 2012

All I know is if I'm getting $1.6 billion from someone, the last thing I'm asking for is an apology.

#international taxation

Child_Plz · Feb 8, 2012

Proview International, which owns subsidiaries Proview Technology in Shenzhen and Proview Electronics in Taiwan, originally registered the name "iPad" in Taiwan and in mainland China in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Apple bought Proview's iPad trademark for $55,000 in 2009 via a company called IP Application Development, but that deal only applied to the trademark in Taiwan. Later, Proview chairman Yang Rongshan said Proview did not know IP Application Development was connected to Apple.
Click to expand...

So is this a Taiwan company or a mainland China company?

Anyways I find it ironic because Apple was suing people left and right for the "i" name.

cod · Feb 8, 2012

Unfortunately, this is too common. A company about to go under fishing for a money grab they have no right to.

The last big one I recall concerning the IT world was that SCO linux lawsuit.

Xerobull · Feb 8, 2012

1.6b?

Forums

[iApologize] Is iPad 3 in Jeopardy? Apple Could Lose $1.6B in China Trademark Lawsuit

BEAT LA Member

wreck Contributing Member

wreck Contributing Member

roflmcwaffles Member

Precision340 Member

REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

Yonkers Contributing Member

Invisible Fan Contributing Member

Cowboy_Bebop Member

Pole Houston Rockets--Tilman Fertitta's latest mess.

Deckard Blade Runner
Supporting Member

Cohete Rojo Contributing Member

wizkid83 Contributing Member

Yonkers Contributing Member

BEAT LA Member

Child_Plz Member

cod Member

Xerobull You son of a b!tch! I'm in!

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!

[iApologize] Is iPad 3 in Jeopardy? Apple Could Lose $1.6B in China Trademark Lawsuit

BEAT LA Member

wreck Contributing Member

wreck Contributing Member

roflmcwaffles Member

Precision340 Member

REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

Yonkers Contributing Member

Invisible Fan Contributing Member

Cowboy_Bebop Member

Pole Houston Rockets--Tilman Fertitta's latest mess.

Deckard Blade Runner Supporting Member

Cohete Rojo Contributing Member

wizkid83 Contributing Member

Yonkers Contributing Member

BEAT LA Member

Child_Plz Member

cod Member

Xerobull You son of a b!tch! I'm in!

Share This Page

Deckard Blade Runner
Supporting Member