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

I wonder how this will turn out, a simple solution would be if apple buys the company suing them and fires the people responsible for the idea.
 
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Yikes!

xnu said:
Apple should change the name in China of the iPad....

fuPad?
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They should change the name of the iPad selling in China to the FyouPad, and make sure none of them work very well, with an "sold as is" clause. ha ha

Or perhaps just cripple China and move their factory to India.

:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p
 
I think it's time for Apple to move away from iNames. It's getting little old. And every other company is buying every possible name with an "i" in front of it, in hopes that one day apple will make a product like it. I think naming things like "Apple TV" will work. It might start a new generation of products for Apple.
If iMac becomes something with touch screen, there's no point of calling it iMac anymore. "Apple XXXX" will work too.
 
Rafterman said:
China has a lot of nerve, considering they allow the selling of more fake Apple products and pirate more software than any place else on Earth.

Apple should sue China for the billions they lose over there every year.
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China is not suing Apple. A company is.

Just like the company is not suing the United States. They are suing Apple.
 
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/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

lifeinhd said:
It's funny because I just finished watching the latest Top Gear episode where they drive a bunch of Chinese cars that are all clones of European cars :p
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And the German car company lost its lawsuit because the Chinese legal system said it looked nothing like it. They were clones!!!!!!!!!
Western companies will never win against local Chinese companies. Just how the system works in china. If apple have enough clout to buck that trend then maybe.......doubt it though.
 
Rename it to AmeriPad in China, and watch them bite their tongues as it becomes the #1 selling electronic device there. Everyone in China wants an AmeriPad! :D
 
samcraig said:
China is not suing Apple. A company is.

Just like the company is not suing the United States. They are suing Apple.
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I'm referring to the power of the Chinese govt to fine Apple. China could end this now. They should clean up their own house before worrying about Chinese corporations' trademarks.
 
Rafterman said:
I'm referring to the power of the Chinese govt to fine Apple. China could end this now. They should clean up their own house before worrying about Chinese corporations' trademarks.
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Really? Wow. There are no words... Do you hold up the US (and every other country) to the same standards?
 
BobbyRond said:
What was the $1.6 Billion based on? Sounds like a bit too much, no?
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Well, with 100 Billion to Apple's name to date, last time I read..., it won't hurt too much for them to fork it over if they lose this. They'll make it up on the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 and Apple TV, and laptop sales, desktop sales, iTunes, etc, etc. I mean, the next quarter will again possibly be another record breaking which would probably add several more billions to make up for the loss and all would be good. No company is perfect. It's a lawsuit war out there. It's billions of dollars industry anyway. If any big company got money, there will likely be other smaller companies that want a piece of it. No company likes big companies dominating. It's unfortunately that everybody hates each other when it comes to competitive world of near monopoly companies out there competing for product superiority.

Also about china. Didn't they banned google? I thought I read something about that a long time ago. So, I'm not surprised of whatever they do with other companies they will do. Eve if they get a few extra bucks out of rich companies. Let's just hope that Apple is legit about the lawsuit against them.
 
Call it not-iPad, with a huge ad campaign featuring the iPad under a headline screaming "This is not an iPad". Can I take my fee in Apple shares?
 
HelveticaRoman said:
Call it not-iPad, with a huge ad campaign featuring the iPad under a headline screaming "This is not an iPad". Can I take my fee in Apple shares?
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Cute - but completely wrong. Do you think you could get away with "not-Jaguar" and a headline that says "This is not a Jaguar" without being sued?
 
wisty said:
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.
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Would Apple sue the parent company for being misled?
 
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Apple has absolutely nothing to worry about. When they bought the parent company, the contract would have specified that the rights to the name were given to apple. If the company did not own the rights, then the liability shifts from Apple on to the parent company that sold the rights.

Worst case scenario is that Apple gets told to stop producing iPad's for sale in China and must either buy the name, or change the name. And no, they can't just claim they want $xxx for the name, it goes off of the value of their "I-Pad" products, but that doesn't mean it will be $55,000 they bought it from the parent company at...
 
maril1111 said:
I wonder how this will turn out, a simple solution would be if apple buys the company suing them and fires the people responsible for the idea.
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I'm guessing, asking price $1.6 Billion + $38 Million admin fee.


I doubt a simple buy/fire routine is the best approach in China, those darn communists do not have a sense of humour at times, like we do in the West when one company takes over another one.
 
Given that the Chinese government isn't exactly known for transparency or for proper protection of intellectual property rights, this has the potential to get ugly for Apple.
 
TrentS said:
Or even better, name is "MadeInAmericaPad"! Really chap their hide!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
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Then they will sue you for false advertising, and Apple will lose as everyone knows, no apple product will ever be made in America again.

Does made in America still exist, or has that been TM by the Chinese also?
 
So 'ProView', the maker of cheap-ass monitors (from my experience with them) wants to wag Apple?

Wouldn't it be cheaper in the end if Apple bought ProView and liquidated their assets?

And funny that the proview.net site is slower than frozen dog poop, and the proview.com site extolls their experience with LED lighting products. Hardly competition from a handheld computing device...

----------
TrentS said:
Or even better, name is "MadeInAmericaPad"! Really chap their hide!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
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And realistically threaten to move all production to Brazil...

Is Apple big enough to wag China? Stay tuned?
 
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