Heard the one about the iPad which isn't an iPad?
By Zhu Shenshen |
December 7, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IT sounds like a joke, but it's not. Apple may not be able to call its iPad an iPad on the Chinese mainland. Unless, that is, it pays a huge sum of money to a struggling Taiwan company.
A court in the southern city of Shenzhen has rejected a suit brought by Apple in which it sought to gain control of the iPad trademark from the Shenzhen branch of Proview Electronics (Taiwan), an electronics manufacturer.
There was no evidence that Apple had obtained the trademark from Proview Technology (Shenzhen), which owned the rights to it on the Chinese mainland, the court ruled.
As a result, Apple may be forbidden to use the iPad trademark in the mainland market, industry insiders said. If Apple chooses not to appeal the court's decision, it would have to pay a large sum to buy the right to use it, they said.
Apple did not comment on the development yesterday.
In the third quarter, Apple China's revenue, mainly from the sales of its iPhone and iPad, reached US$3.8 billion, six times that of the same period of the previous year.
Proview Electronics (Taiwan), a contract manufacturer of flat screens, invested heavily in setting up Proview Technology (Shenzhen) and tried to launch a tablet computer called the I-Pad a decade ago, but it met with lukewarm market response. The I-Pad project was cancelled.
However, Proview registered the trademark in Europe, China, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam between 2000 and 2004, according to trademark databases.
In 2006, Proview Electronics (Taiwan) agreed to sell the "global trademark" to a UK-based company called IP Application Development (IPAD) for 35,000 pounds (US$55,104). IPAD transferred the trademark to Apple.
However, Proview Electronics (Taiwan) said the trademark for the Chinese mainland market was not included in that 2006 agreement because Proview Technology (Shenzhen) held it and not the Taiwan unit.
Proview is seeking to get the highest possible compensation from Apple through the trademark case, analysts said. "We are in big financial trouble and the trademark is a valuable asset that could help us sort out part of that trouble," Yang Rongshan, Proview's chairman, said in an interview with the Financial Times last year.
Both sides have been in negotiation over the trademark for some time. An insider said the only question was how much Apple would be prepared to pay for the Chinese mainland rights.
"There's little possibility of Apple giving up the iPad trademark in China, I think," the insider said.
A court in the southern city of Shenzhen has rejected a suit brought by Apple in which it sought to gain control of the iPad trademark from the Shenzhen branch of Proview Electronics (Taiwan), an electronics manufacturer.
There was no evidence that Apple had obtained the trademark from Proview Technology (Shenzhen), which owned the rights to it on the Chinese mainland, the court ruled.
As a result, Apple may be forbidden to use the iPad trademark in the mainland market, industry insiders said. If Apple chooses not to appeal the court's decision, it would have to pay a large sum to buy the right to use it, they said.
Apple did not comment on the development yesterday.
In the third quarter, Apple China's revenue, mainly from the sales of its iPhone and iPad, reached US$3.8 billion, six times that of the same period of the previous year.
Proview Electronics (Taiwan), a contract manufacturer of flat screens, invested heavily in setting up Proview Technology (Shenzhen) and tried to launch a tablet computer called the I-Pad a decade ago, but it met with lukewarm market response. The I-Pad project was cancelled.
However, Proview registered the trademark in Europe, China, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam between 2000 and 2004, according to trademark databases.
In 2006, Proview Electronics (Taiwan) agreed to sell the "global trademark" to a UK-based company called IP Application Development (IPAD) for 35,000 pounds (US$55,104). IPAD transferred the trademark to Apple.
However, Proview Electronics (Taiwan) said the trademark for the Chinese mainland market was not included in that 2006 agreement because Proview Technology (Shenzhen) held it and not the Taiwan unit.
Proview is seeking to get the highest possible compensation from Apple through the trademark case, analysts said. "We are in big financial trouble and the trademark is a valuable asset that could help us sort out part of that trouble," Yang Rongshan, Proview's chairman, said in an interview with the Financial Times last year.
Both sides have been in negotiation over the trademark for some time. An insider said the only question was how much Apple would be prepared to pay for the Chinese mainland rights.
"There's little possibility of Apple giving up the iPad trademark in China, I think," the insider said.
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