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iPads seized from one Shijiazhuang, China Apple reseller
Local officials from China's Administration of Industry and Commerce (AIC) reportedly confiscated iPads from an Apple reseller in the city of Shijiazhuang. An article in the Chinese newspaper, Hebei Youth Daily, claims this seizure was the result of a recent Proview iPad trademark infringement verdict. It is not known whether the AIC acted alone in response to this judgment or at the request of a Proview official. Another report from the Sina Tech News claims AIC officials in provinces outside Hebei are also investigating the sale of the tablet device and have asked some merchants to stop selling them openly. This Sina News report also claims Proview may take a bloder step and ask the General Administration of China Customs to ban the import and export of the iPad. The case has a complicated background. According to a previous report, a Taiwanese subsidiary of Proview sold the iPad trademark to a UK company which later sold the trademark to Apple. Proview contested these transfers because it did not attend the original trademark negotiations in Taiwan. A Chinese court agreed and ruled Proview still owns its trademark on the iPad name. Apple has appealed this decision, but it could still face sanctions until a ruling is made on this appeal. [Via The Next Web and Penn-Olson]
Daily Update for February 1, 2012
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Apple contests iPad trademark rejection in China
Last December, a Chinese court rejected Apple's ownership of the iPad trademark in China in favor of Proview International, a large but relatively unknown Chinese monitor company. Now Apple is appealing that ruling, asking the courts to transfer the iPad trademark to it and also asking for Proview to pay 4 million yuan as compensation for legal fees that have accrued. Apple's original lawsuit against the company noted that a Proview subsidiary in Taiwan had sold the iPad trademark rights to "IP Applications," a UK-based company that later sold the trademark rights to Apple in 2010. In December, a court in Shenzen, China ruled that the transfer of trademark rights was only done through the Taiwan subsidiary. Since the main corporation (also located in Shenzhen) was not in attendance at the trademark negotiations in Taiwan, the court stated that Proview did not formally transfer any trademark rights to Apple. Apple's new appeal makes the claim that the Taiwanese subsidiary was acting as a representative for Proview's mainland operations. Proview says that it has no such relationship with the Taiwan subsidiary and was never in talks with Apple about transferring the iPad trademarks. It would be in Apple's best interest to win the appeal, since Proview has already filed a pair of lawsuits in Chinese courts demanding that Apple and another vendor -- Gome Electronics -- stop selling tablets using the iPad name.
