The iPad maker, Apple which on late January has appealed a Chinese court on last December ruling rejected its ownership of iPad trademark in China. Proview – the company against which the Apple had originally filed a lawsuit over the trademark control issue.
On the context of same yesterday we reported that authorities in China have reportedly begin removing Apple iPads from retail store in the country – some local Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AIC) have begun confiscating the product wherever it has been found on sale, in reponse to the ruling against the iPad maker.
Today, much wider news is making the waves that more than 30 commerce regulatory body offices across China are investigating Apple’s sales of the iPad in the country. Authorities in one Chinese city, Shijiazhuang, have reportedly gone as far as to seize iPad tablets from local merchants, after Proview filed a complaint claiming ownership of the iPad trademark.
Apple, four years back, purchased the iPad trademark from the Taiwanese display manufacturer Proview Electronics for $55,000 by way of a front company called IP Application Development –Proview Technology (Shenzhen), a unit of Proview International in Hong Kong, now claims to own the rights to use “iPad” in China. The Chinese company Proview is suing the iPad maker in a dispute over the “iPad trademark” and anticipates Apple will be fined with $38 million by a Beijing court over the issue.
