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Apple distributor sued over iPad trademark

China.org.cn, February 23, 2012

• A Chinese customer tests out iPad in an Apple Store in China. [CFP]

  Shanghai's Pudong New District People's Court held a hearing Wednesday on Chinese company Proview Technology (Shenzhen)'s lawsuit against an Apple distributor.

  Proview Shenzhen has claimed that it owns the right to use the iPad trademark on the Chinese mainland and that Apple's product infringes on its trademark.

  Proview Shenzhen asked the court to immediately ban the company's iPad sales, while Apple Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. filed for a rejection of the ban and a termination of the lawsuit.

  The Shanghai court will hand its verdict down at a later date.

  Proview Shenzhen and Apple have been caught up in the dispute over the right to use the iPad trademark in China.

  Proview Shenzhen registered the iPad trademark in China in 2001.Proview Taiwan, a company that is associated with, but not legally representing Proview Shenzhen, sold the Chinese trademark - along with others for use in other countries - to the UK-based IP Application Development Limited for 35,000 British pounds (US$55,000) in 2009, according to a report by Nanfang Daily.

  The British company then resold the brand to Apple for 10 pounds before Apple's launch of iPad in 2010, the report said.

  Apple applied to Chinese mainland authorities to transfer the trademark from Proview Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland in 2010, which was before the official launch of iPad. However, the application was turned down by China's trademark administrative authorities, the report said.

  Apple then sued Proview Shenzhen in 2011 to gain legal entitlement as exclusive user of the iPad trademark - but lost the lawsuit in a Guangdong court. Apple later appealed to the higher court in Guangdong province. The appeal was accepted and verdicts are still pending.

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