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Apple Settles Chinese 'iPad' Trademark Dispute with Proview for $60 Million

The Chinese court are a rip, paying these guys $60 million for what?

The same thing may happen to the Chinese court and company one day, payback is a bitch.
 
farken ProView,

Played loose and fast game, lied and two faced, and got away with $60 mil.

$25 mil would have been OK to pay off lawyers and still get a nice sum, but $60 is really striking gold.
 
lzyprson said:
I dont think you guys realize how much $100+ Billion dollars in cash really is. If Apple had even have of this money back in the 1980's, the whole technological landscape of planet earth could very well be much different today.

Food for thought.
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I realize how much it is and $96M goes a long way in R&D and investment within the company.

I think you may not realize how much $96M really is. Amazon (who is the largest online retailer by an order of magnitude over the next competitor) posted a quarterly profit of $130M in Q1. $96M is almost 75% of that.

It is less than 0.1% of their total $100B in cash, but can you imagine what it would do to the share price if Apple lost that $96M bond by losing the actual lawsuit to Samsung when it goes to court? I don't think the risk is worth it for the Galaxy Nexus, but I think it may be worth it if they can parlay this victory into a quick victory against the Galaxy SIII. Then the increased profitability from preventing IP infringement by Samsung may have some serious benefits.
 
jacobj said:
My house is worth £120k bricks, mortar and fixtures. The market value is £450k because that is what the market is willing to pay. That value is held up by the desire for people to own their house. The iPad name was worth more to apple than it initially paid and any seller that had the right and knew they were selling to Apple would have known that.

You point out their incompetence at transferring the rights and I think you are correct. However we have all benefited from a screw up at some point. In this case they had an opportunity to revisit the sale knowing the true identity of the buyer. The initial claim was too high, but I believe Apple has paid what the name was worth pre launch. It is a billion dollar trademark now.
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So if you found out after you signed a contract to sell your house that the buyer was Elton John, you would be entitled to go back to him and ask for more money than you contracted to sell it for? The market value is determined by the product, not the buyer. This is why most large corporations make purchases like this through dummy corporations, to avoid being gouged and to just pay the fair market value.

In any case, you also can't use the current value of the iPad name to determine what its value was at the time. When IPAD purchased the name for Apple, the name was worth virtually nothing. It had no market and no brand recognition. It was only after Apple introduced the iPad that the name gained value.
 
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Gasu E. said:
One of the more bizarre arguments I've ever heard, as you just argued against the the basic rationale for commerce. Not "capitalism", but commerce itself, the actually trading of goods and services between parties that has been going on for tens of thousands of years. Commerce only happens because the buyer values something more than the seller. If the buyer were morally required to reveal to the seller why he valued it more, and the seller were able to jack the price up to capture the additional value for himself, commerce would not happen.
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I was blatant because you seemed to be missing it and still are. I made the argument because you stated it had some kind of inherent value that a trademark does not. That is sims wrong.

My point, that you are intent on missing, is that Apple deceived the seller. I am not expecting them to reveal the price they were willing to pay, only that they do not deceive the seller by disguising their identity. You seem to be arguing that deception is fine.

Bankers are rightly having to compensate customers that they knowingly deceived in the UK. the buyers could have attained the knowledge required to avoid the pitfalls of the purchase, but te banks failed to disclose such pitfalls, believing them to be on the right side of legal, even if they were dishonest. Such practices dont make for a strong economy, but instead encourage a culture of deceipt and greed. Capitalism is a tool, not an objective. In this case Apple broke the spirit of a fair and equitable open market.
 
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FakeWozniak said:
They are idiots. The corrupt Chinese COMMUNIST/SOCIALIST government got them $60M. Proview will just piss it away again. This was protection money Apple had to pay. There will be other opportunities to get donkey raped again by China. When the cost of cloning, unfounded lawsuits, etc gets high enough, Apple will be manufacturing domestically again.
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Lol, some democratic governments are more corrupt than the Chinese, it has nothing to do with the country being communist.
 
Since OS-6 said:
Funny how Taiwan is a part of China until it's convenient ( for " China " ) for it not to be !
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^^ This.

The People's Republic of China can try all they want to brainwash their people into thinking Taiwan is not a country, and just a 'renegade province', but in reality it's very different. England has more power over Canada than China has of Taiwan.

As a resident of Taiwan for a few years now, China's behaviour really disgusts me. As does the complacency of countries like USA and Canada, who happily turn a blind eye to Taiwan's situation. Last I read China had about 1500 missiles aimed at Taiwan, and every year 100 more more missiles are added. But USA is more interested in China's $$$. Same for my home country of Canada, who are more than happy to turn a blind eye when peddling their dirty oil sands.
 
Loss vs gain. Apple loses $60M to gain Billions on iPad sales in China. Plus the fan base has been energized by the rape and pillaging if Apple. Not quite enough to take to the streets but many Apple fans are pissed. While the winner Proview still is $340 million in debt with no more lifelines in sight. Even though this settlement is nearly 4x too much, I'm not feeling sorry for Apple. The Chinese government and court system, I don't have enough tears.
 
Thunderhawks said:
Nice try . No need to downvote.

...
There aren't enough engineers in the US (Hello, education, no child left behind)
...

Do yourself a favor and read up on this (Plenty of info available), instead of repeating uninformed patriotic statements.
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Nice try.

Right, before "no child left behind" the America schools system was producing engineers at pace that just could not be absorbed by the American university system. And if it had not been for "no child left behind" American students would be taking up all the engineering seats at Chinese and Indian universities.

Do yourself a favor and read up on this (Plenty of info available), instead of repeating uninformed ANTI-patriotic statements.

There really should be a minimum IQ for posters.

----------
Thunderhawks said:
If you follow the logistics about producing millions of electronic devices in USA that have been discussed in many ways, you would know that there are not enough workers available in the US to do the type of production tech companies need.
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Slave labor has for a long time been the preferred solution, but since it is the 21st century, mechanization, robotics, and other more creative measures would be the preferred approach.
 
yuenadan said:
^^ This.

The People's Republic of China can try all they want to brainwash their people into thinking Taiwan is not a country, and just a 'renegade province', but in reality it's very different. England has more power over Canada than China has of Taiwan.

As a resident of Taiwan for a few years now, China's behaviour really disgusts me. As does the complacency of countries like USA and Canada, who happily turn a blind eye to Taiwan's situation. Last I read China had about 1500 missiles aimed at Taiwan, and every year 100 more more missiles are added. But USA is more interested in China's $$$. Same for my home country of Canada, who are more than happy to turn a blind eye when peddling their dirty oil sands.
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It is the Taiwanese government's official position that Taiwan is a part of China however it doesn't recognize the PRC government. Taiwan is a province of the Republic of China which still claims all the mainland territory along with Mongolia. It just happens that the RoC only has 1 province left...
 
Laird Knox said:
I take it you haven't been following the story?

Proview made and sold a device that looked very much like the original iMac. It was called the iPad (Internet Personal Access Device).

Long after Proview stopped selling their iPad an Apple shell company purchased the worldwide rights to the iPad trademark from Proview.

When Proview found out that Apple was the buyer and saw the sales of Apple's iPad skyrocket they said they didn't sell the rights to the iPad in China.

Proview files a lawsuit for $2 billion.

No matter how you slice it, Proview's actions were pretty shady. On the other hand Apple was a bit sloppy in crossing the i's and dotting the t's since this wasn't simply thrown out of court.

In any case it is a good lesson for any business that operates internationally.
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I had been following this and your assessment seems to be at odds with the facts.

Proview China allege that the rights sold by Proview Taiwan, a subsidiary, were not theirs to sell.

Yes Hong Kong made a ruling in favor of Apple.

My guess is Apple, weighing the facts decided to settle because it was the best business decision.

There could be two reasons for that;

- they knew that their case was arguable and they could have well been on the receiving end of a much bigger costs award.

- they decided they were legally right but the blocking of sales while Android, Samsung and others gained traction in the Chinese market was not a good idea,

Or a combination of these.

In reality this case was never tested in court and we'll never know what the outcome would have been. To guess otherwise is just that... a guess.

The facts are the deal is done. End of story.

I personally think it is better for Apple to have settled this. Regardless of the outcome and the behind the scenes detail, good on Proview for fighting this and winning.

I don't believe Apple can sue Proview Taiwan because the facts were never tested in court and a decision given. What an interesting case and interesting lesson it'll make in business schools.
 
The real greasy thing here is the same guy owns the parent company AND the subsidiary. He wanted to be a thorn in Apple's side as long as possible figuring that eventually Apple will cave when they finally need to put this nonsense behind them. His strategy worked.

Now another chinese company wants a payout over the term "Snow Leopard". Gee I didn't see that coming. (sarcasm) This is exactly why it's important to stand your ground. There are plenty of greasy individuals out to pick your pocket.
 
jacobj said:
There is an element of truth here. However the value of an item is dependent on how much the buyer is willing to pay. In this case Apple were deceitful by hiding their real identify. I understand why they did it: if leaked that they were buying the name the truth re their intentions for a new device would be out. However the consequence of that action was that the actual owner of the name did not have clarity as to the value of their goods.

I have heard it argued that this is tough luck on the seller. However I believe that the recent doings of banks in the UK have shown us that such immorality is not a good thing.

Apple have now paid what the name iPad was probably worth to them before product launch an that seems fair to me.

With regard to them being trolls I am not sure that stacks up. If their intention had been to scam Apple for more money, then why did they sell it for so little to a company that was not Apple as far as they were concerned?
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Does a company really have to tell you its intended usage and value to them? If you sold your house for what seemed like a fair price and the company built an expensive hotel on the site of your home, were they dishonest by not telling you?

You sell for a price between the value to you and the perceived value to the buyer. The buyer does not need to tell you his intended use of the property.

You also forget that Proview was not even using the trademark. They were about to lose the name anyways.
 
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