There’s interesting news today that Apple has had to pay out $60 million to a Chinese company, Proview Technology, in order to settle a dispute about the iPad trademark in China. It will now take around a week before the trademark will be transferred to Apple from China by the country’s national trademark authority.
The dispute resulted from a move several years ago when Apple hired British lawyers to purchase rights to the iPad name across the world using a company, IP Application Development. At this time Apple struck a deal and paid $35,000 to an affiliate of Proview Technology in Taiwan for the iPad trademark in several countries. However when the iPad hit success, Proview Technology then claimed that the deal had not included the trademark in China and the Shenzhen company then filed a trademark infringement case against Apple that ended up in a provincial court.
According to The New York Times, Chinese authorities began seizing iPads in February leading to Apple taking part in settlement negotiations. Today the litigation was ended when the two sides agreed a settlement at the Guangdong High People’s Court in Guangzhou. A statement was issued saying that Apple had paid $60 million for the iPad trademark rights in China, into a court-approved bank account. A lawyer for Proview Technology, Xie Xianghui, said that the agreement was reached last week “and confirmed with a ruling by the higher court” on Monday morning.
Proview Technology is currently insolvent and near to liquidation and so the money paid by Apple will be used towards paying off creditors although Mr. Xie also said that the company did not consider the settlement as “especially large.” At the time of writing Apple had not immediately responded to a request for comment. What are your thoughts on Apple’s settlement for the iPad trademark in China? Send your comments to give your views on this.