Apple Faces Potential $38 Million Fine in China as $1.6 Billion Lawsuit Over 'iPad' Trademark Proceeds

MacRumors · Feb 7, 2012

iSmashPhone summarizes a pair of reports from China claiming that Apple is facing a potential 240 million yuan ($38 million) fine from governmental authorities over alleged trademark infringement involving the "iPad" name. The fine pales, however, in comparison to the $1.6 billion Proview Technology, which claims to own the name, is seeking to win in a series of lawsuits filed against Apple. Proview is also said to be seeking an apology from Apple and an injunction preventing the company from using the iPad name in China.

Proview first accused Apple of trademark infringement back in 2010, claiming that it had owned the mark in China since 2000 and seeking a settlement from Apple in the range of $800 million. Apple fired back with its own lawsuit claiming that it did own the "iPad" rights in China after having purchased European rights from Proview's parent company for just $55,000.

With Proview having filed a 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) suit against Apple in the meantime, Apple lost its suit when a court ruled that the Chinese rights had not been included in the purchase because the parent company did not hold the authority to sell them.

Apple is appealing the December ruling in favor of Proview, and any potential government fines or resolution to Proview's case against Apple appear to be waiting for that case to be resolved.

Article Link: Apple Faces Potential $38 Million Fine in China as $1.6 Billion Lawsuit Over 'iPad' Trademark Proceeds

JilzVT · Feb 7, 2012

$38 million? That's ashtray money.

ghostface147 · Feb 7, 2012

JilzVT said:
$38 million? That's ashtray money.

That's just the fine. They are asking 1.6 billion in the lawsuit itself. I think Apple loses this one.

likemyorbs · Feb 7, 2012

An apology from Apple? That's adorable that they think that's possible!

sammich · Feb 7, 2012

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Say Apple loses...what will they name the iPad there? Or will Apple just pay some extortionate sum to buy the rights to the name?

bacaramac · Feb 7, 2012

Interesting, you would think Apple had their ducks in a row when they bought the parent company.

I have a feeling Chinese law is not as forgiving as others, but that is strictly a guess.

lincolntran · Feb 7, 2012

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Bringing jobs over to them and now they turn back and bite you. Ouch!!! That's how communists (China) do things.

Johnny Steps · Feb 7, 2012

Apple should troll China and not sell iPads then. Make the country will suck Apple in a moist fashion.

*LTD* · Feb 7, 2012

That's rich, coming from China, of all places.

notjustjay · Feb 7, 2012

Johnny Steps said:
Apple should troll China and not sell iPads then. Make the country will suck Apple in a moist fashion.

And when the country makes it difficult for Apple to produce iPads, iPods, iPhones, MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, Apple TVs, etc., etc. in its factories... then what?

MultiMediaWill · Feb 7, 2012

Will this delay the iPad 3?

charlituna · Feb 7, 2012

ghostface147 said:
That's just the fine. They are asking 1.6 billion in the lawsuit itself. I think Apple loses this one.

Maybe not. Apple could win this, albeit perhaps out of China, by proving that the parent company was not upfront about not owning the rights in China when they sold the "global" rights to IPAD (which then transferred it to Apple). If the language says 'global' and not 'everywhere in the world that we own' then Apple could have a stand.

The trouble is that the Chinese courts are more likely to side with their own. It's like filing a patent suit in East Texas. Even if you are wrong, you'll like win because that district favors the folks that claim they were infringed upon. Which is why so many companies file there

jerrykim16 · Feb 7, 2012

they should just rape the company by acquiring it!

they should just rape the company by acquiring it!

charlituna · Feb 7, 2012

MultiMediaWill said:
Will this delay the iPad 3?

Maybe selling in China. If they get it at all. But everywhere else, not likely.

----------

Johnny Steps said:
Apple should troll China and not sell iPads then. Make the country will suck Apple in a moist fashion.

Then you would just have more of the crap that is happening in Hong Kong.

Apple would need to find a way to block all sales by all channels and person's bringing in iPads to black market to really do anything.

xnu · Feb 7, 2012

thats unfortunate cookie

Apple should change the name in China of the iPad....

fuPad?

SlugBlanket · Feb 7, 2012

lincolntran said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Bringing jobs over to them and now they turn back and bite you. Ouch!!! That's how communists (China) do things.

So by your reasoning, Capitalists wouldn't sue over possible trademark infringement ? That's idiots for you.

Gasu E. · Feb 7, 2012

ghostface147 said:
That's just the fine. They are asking 1.6 billion in the lawsuit itself. I think Apple loses this one.

I don't know how things work in China. In a country with an actual legal system, you have to prove actual damages. Just asking for a random $1.6B when you have only suffered $5 in actual economic damage normally doesn't work.

charlituna · Feb 7, 2012

notjustjay said:
And when the country makes it difficult for Apple to produce iPads, iPods, iPhones, MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, Apple TVs, etc., etc. in its factories... then what?

Then millions of Chinese are at risk of starving. Because like it or not, China needs tech companies hiring places like Foxconn. If they try to put the screws on Apple over this, it could fall back on them hard and ripple to every US tech company that hires Foxconn etc to do their assembly.

This could be just the thing to get Apple etc to pay the price to move their business to another country. Either by staying with Foxconn's not Chinese factories or moving to something else. Perhaps banning together to build their own. Heck a combined tech lobby could perhaps get the US to drop all kinds of taxes etc in return for a group of factories that would hire welfare receivers to so this piece work for 8 hours a day. Given that welfare reformers want to make getting a job of any kind a requirement to stay on welfare for anything more than a few months, even that lobby could jump in. There could also be movements to allow temp visas for immigrant workers to come for a few months to also work (especially before big launches) etc.

China simply can't risk that. They need these jobs for their people too much

Rocketman · Feb 7, 2012

Apple has already branded the product worldwide in the minds of people. They should unname the device entirely.

Place an Apple logo on the device people will forever know going forward as an iPad, refer to it generically as pad, have an Apple logo on it and model numbers of course, but NO NAME, in cheeky markets.

It will work.

tigres · Feb 7, 2012

Wish my name was worth that.

BobbyRond · Feb 7, 2012

What was the $1.6 Billion based on? Sounds like a bit too much, no?

wisty · Feb 7, 2012

bacaramac said:
Interesting, you would think Apple had their ducks in a row when they bought the parent company.

I have a feeling Chinese law is not as forgiving as others, but that is strictly a guess.

IANAL, but my understanding is that Chinese trademark law is pretty simplistic - you register your trademark and it's yours, no questions. It allows trade-mark squatting. That's the way they play the game there. It's not really about Chinese companies getting special treatment, it's just that they know the rules better.

As for the sale of the trademark, if the trademark was registered to the Chinese company (the subsidiary), and the Chinese company didn't do the deal, it's a bit like your parents selling your car. Companies may treat Chinese subsidiaries like branch offices, but they are separate legal entities, and have to follow certain laws. And there's bound to be fiddly rules about asset transfer.

EvilEvil · Feb 7, 2012

Karma is a bitch!

Blomkvist · Feb 7, 2012

Rocketman said:
Apple has already branded the product worldwide in the minds of people. They should unname the device entirely.

Place an Apple logo on the device people will forever know going forward as an iPad, refer to it generically as pad, have an Apple logo on it and model numbers of course, but NO NAME, in cheeky markets.

It will work.

Not a bad idea; I agree that the "brand" iPad is already out there. But Apple will want to maintain control of that brand. It's not just about marketing their own product, but also preventing other companies from using Apple's recognition to brand their own.

You would think Apple could counter-sue the parent company and pass the costs along to them.

Small White Car · Feb 7, 2012

Given that the sound 'pad' probably doesn't mean anything to do with 'slabs of paper' to the people in China, this seems like a perfect opportunity to just call the thing something else there.

If this was in an English-speaking country it might be worth fighting for, but surely advertising it as "Apple's touchscreen computer, the _____" is all you need in a country with a different language. I don't think whatever you put in that blank really matters at this point. They'll know what they're talking about.

Apple Faces Potential $38 Million Fine in China as $1.6 Billion Lawsuit Over 'iPad' Trademark Proceeds

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