Back in March this year, Apple’s iPad was surrounded by controversy when a China based company; Proview sued the Cupertino based tech giant for trademark infringement.
Proview holds the trademark of the name ‘iPad’ and as Apple has been using it for long time to sell its tablet, both the companies went into the court of law. This also led Chinese officials removing and seizing all the iPads in store and keeping them away from the sales counters.
Proview holds the trademark of the name ‘iPad’ and as Apple has been using it for long time to sell its tablet, both the companies went into the court of law. This also led Chinese officials removing and seizing all the iPads in store and keeping them away from the sales counters.And in order to settle the issue, Apple has finally paid Proview a whooping $60 million for gaining access to the title of ‘iPad’ and also start selling the tablet in China. Now the $60 million figure would seem to be huge, but then it is not that huge as Proview was seeking $2 billion initially.
Mr. Xie, a lawyer at the Grandall Legal Group in Shenzhen, China, which represented Shenzhen Proview Technology said to the NYTimes, “It was done last week and it was confirmed with a ruling by the higher court.” Mr. Xie also said that Proview Technology did not regard the settlement amount as especially large, “but it is O.K.”
By paying the $60 million amount to Proview, Apple would freely be able to use the trademark ‘iPad’ to sell its tablet in China. For now can take as long as two weeks for the ‘iPad’ name to be officially moved over to Apple by the Chinese national trademark authority but that wait seems to be worth it.
Also don’t forget to read our review of the new iPad.