APPLE Is Being Sued Over The IPAD Name!

APPLE is being sued by the Shenzen, China based technology company Proview.  Proview is suing APPLE over the IPAD name.  Proview Technology is a subsidiary of Hong Kong based: Proview International Holdings, LTD.  Proview Technology is currently suing APPLE in a Beijing based court over ownership of the actual IPAD name trademark in China.  Proview is asking for $38 Million in damages with an additional apology from APPLE.  The company also wants APPLE to stop the sales and marketing for the IPAD tablet in the meantime.

The company Proview International registered the IPAD trademark in the year 2001.  Proview originally sold the trademark to a company in the UK called: IP Application Development who eventually sold the trademark rights to APPLE in 2006 for approximately $55,000.  Proview Technology has not honored APPLE’s trademark of the IPAD name within China.  With this being the case, Proview is currently selling many technology products which bear the IPAD name in China.  APPLE has counter sued stating that they have rights to the name.  The Chinese courts have found that Proview can use the trademarked IPAD name within China.

If APPLE does not win the appeal for this case it will have to rename it’s IPAD tablet when it is sold in China’s consumer market.  In order to retain the usage of the IPAD name in China it would have to pay Pr0view Technology to use the trademarked name.  A consultant firm called Hejun Vanguard Group who is handling debt restructuring for Proview is not impressed with APPLE’s actions within China.  They are claiming that APPLE had not secured the legal rights to use the IPAD name when they started to sell the tablet in China in September 2011.

If the results of this suit stand, the IPAD could possibly disappear from the Chinese market.  What is very ironic, is that China is the market in which APPLE’s growth is expanding most rapidly.  It is very difficult to understand how APPLE is being sued for the name of a product that is quickly becoming a standard in computing.   Even though APPLE purchased the name, there seems to have been some legal miscommunication along the way.  Hopefully this suit can be solved fairly for both parties in a timely manner.

Tags: apple, APPLE Lawsuit, computers, entertainment, film, hip hop, Ipad, IPAD Trademark, james hamlett, lifestyle, music, pop music, producer, PROVIEW INTERNATIONAL, PROVIEW TECHNOLOGY, publisher, self help, technology, writer

Category: Tech Talk