The trademark between Apple and Proview has been heating up lately, according to a report from Appleinsider. The almost bankrupt monitor maker Proview got a severe blow when Shanghai Pudong New Areas People’s Court rejected the preliminary injunction against iPad sales in China. This is great news for Apple because it can sell iPads at its flagship store in Shanghai without any skepticism.
Proview, a Taiwanese computer monitor maker claims to own the name I-Pad n China, the same name Apple uses for its tablet computer. It has filed a $2 billion lawsuit against the Apple, the worlds most technology valuable firm. Proview being a bankrupt company cannot file any lawsuit without the permission of its creditors, who are maintaining silence for their own vested interest. They are seeing the Ipad trademark as the only asset which might help them recover their money. Li Shu, Proview’s lawyer has said that the creditors would be prepared to withdraw all their lawsuits if Apple makes a settlement for $400 million.
Proview is just trying to pressurize Apple to enter into some sort of negotiations. But Apple has other plans. Apple in 2009 had already snatched rights to use the Ipad trademark in 10 different countries from Proview’s Taiwanese Affiliate for about US$ 55,000 including rights to market Ipad in China. Apple secretly founded a United Kingdom based firm to acquire the trademark so that Proview was not aware that it was Apple who was acquiring the trademark.
Lawyers of Proview, which marketed and sold I-Mac like desktops in Hong Kong with the name I-Pad (Internet Personal Access Device), ahead of the hearing expressed their willingness for an ‘out of court’ settlement. Apple argued that the IPAD computer has not been on sale for years. It further added that Apple’s iPad tablet has been helping the manufacturing sector in China and thus contributing heavily to its economy. Apple products are quite popular in China and thus any ban on their products will hit both sides equally. If Apple decides to rename its device, which is highly unlikely, Proview would be left with the name Ipad and huge litigations cost.
China being a big market for Apple, it wont give up without a fight. With Apple fighting multiple copyright infringement lawsuits with tech giants like Samsung, Motorola and Google, Apple surely has a good legal team in their hands. The latest judgement just shows the strong case that Apple has in its favor.
Who do you think will win this battle? Let us know in the comments section.
PS : The term Ipad has been used instead of ‘iPad’ in the article deliberately. It signifies the disputed name and not the tablet in general.