In my December 28, 2011 blog entry titled Why Do A Trademark Search? I noted that Proview Technology, a Chinese company that tried to sell a tablet computer called I-PAD a number of years ago, registered that mark in China and that it was suing Apple resellers in China to halt the sale of Apple’s iPad tablet after the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of Proview against Apple.
On July 2nd it was reported in the New York Times that the Guangdong High People Court in Guangzhou, the provincial capital for the Chinese province that includes Shenzhen, announced that the two sides had reached a settlement and that Proview’s litigation against Apple was resolved after Aple paid $60,000,000 into a court-approved bank account for the right to use the iPad trademark in China.
China’s trademark office should next transfer that mark to Apple.
The New York Times further reported that Proview was insolvent that the Apple’s payment would be used to repay some of its creditors. It also reported that when Apple purchased rights to its mark around the world it purchased them from a Proview affiliate in Taiwan. Proview subsequently argued successfully that that purchase did not include the right to use the iPad mark in the People’s Republic.
