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Chinese Customs Tells Proview That Ban of iPad Exports Would be Difficult

Abazigal said:
So what's a screen company doing trademarking the "ipad" name again? :confused:
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Why shouldn't they? Why is a games console called an xbox when it's not an x-shaped box?

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pmjoe said:
Gentile reminder of what a corrupt, communist country China is.
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What has it got to do with communism? All sorts of governments can be corrupt, and many would argue China is not (and never was) truly communist.
 
farleysmaster said:
Why? They felt they had a legitimate claim, why shouldn't they defend it? And why should they be punished any more than court costs (or loss of Apple's revenue) if they lose?
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the real question is, if Proview had such a big problem, why not make a fuss when the first iPad came out? That doesn't discount their current issue, but it seems a bit ridiculous it took them this long to complain -- or maybe they have, and it's taken this long to get out to the public...
 
farleysmaster said:
Why shouldn't they? Why is a games console called an xbox when it's not an x-shaped box?
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Color me crazy, but isn't that exactly what it was when it came out? :rolleyes:

xbox360s.jpg


I know, they should have thrown away all their brand marketing investment when they released the new one.

Wait, lemme get Apple on the phone about these Macintosh computers they're selling that aren't all-in-one designs now...
 
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Love the Double Standard

This is a classic reason why companies should not deal with the Chinese. As long as it is profitable to them they will rule out the laws but the minute it starts hurting Chinese interest they will over-enforce the rules. Can't say I blame them but it's still pretty apparent.
 
Abazigal said:
So what's a screen company doing trademarking the "ipad" name again? :confused:
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That's irrelevant - you create a non-obvious or generic name for a product and trademark it to protect it. iPad would fit that for a monitor, for example - pre Apple iPad.
After all, why would a technology company trademark the name of a fruit?

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pmjoe said:
Gentile reminder of what a corrupt, communist country China is.
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While this may have lot to do with corruption, communism has nothing to do with it.
 
jlc1978 said:
That's irrelevant - you create a non-obvious or generic name for a product and trademark it to protect it. iPad would fit that for a monitor, for example - pre Apple iPad.
After all, why would a technology company trademark the name of a fruit?
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The thing is, did proview ever release a product with the ipad name? I don't recall anything of the sort. Apple trademarked the apple name because that was what they wanted to call themselves. Fair enough, because they did in fact end up using that name.

Granted, this isn't really anybody's fault, as they apparently trademarked the name long before Apple released the ipad, nor could they have anticipated what a resounding success it would be.

However, it doesn't seem like proview is doing anything with the name. They simply saw an opportunity where they could sue for big bucks and are attempting to milk it for every cent it is worth. What exactly are they trying to defend against, again? :confused:
 
farleysmaster said:
Why shouldn't they? Why is a games console called an xbox when it's not an x-shaped box?

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When Microsoft designed the console, the idea was to essentially take DirectX gaming that had been done on Windows for years and box it up to create a video game console that would compete with the likes of Nintendo and Sony. This "DirectX box" would eventually be simplified in naming to "Xbox". :)
 
Apple could probably also make the case that Proview only asserts rights to the Chinese trademark and that exports should not suffer because they aren't being sold in China. Instead, the legal dispute should be limited to only those products intended for sale there.

It's a reasonable enough case to make with a public-interest argument (which is what this sounds like) against an export ban.

People shouldn't see this as so corrupt - even western countries choose not to prosecute certain claims if it is against the public interest. In this case, it would be very damaging to the Chinese economy. While Apple is in the appeals process, they might think that it doesn't serve anybody to be so hostile at this stage (especially because, let's face it, Apple isn't going to just take an injunction. If it came to it, they'll settle).
 
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The word corruption was created for China

thewitt said:
Corruption is rampant in China.
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Not only are they one of the most corrupt governments known, They are trying to reduce the population with disease and death thru overworking with no labor laws or pay scale requirements.

But, that is how americans get to buy everything so cheap, off the blood, pain, and death of the chinese population.

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Proview is the maker of cheap monitors. They are a small company that bought up various names if what they thought other companies would use. They bought certain naming rights for the express purpose of holding them ransom to any company that needed that name, they do not nor have plans to make any kind of tablet device. hence, they know Apple would need the iPad name.

Like Venezuela, they lied to get american money and then used government control to take from american companies. But, because we americans want everything and want it cheap, we look to exploit other countries.
 
MacRocker said:
Proview is the maker of cheap monitors. They are a small company that bought up various names if what they thought other companies would use. They bought certain naming rights for the express purpose of holding them ransom to any company that needed that name, they do not nor have plans to make any kind of tablet device. hence, they know Apple would need the iPad name.
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They must have a time machine for them to register that trademark in 2000 so they could take advantage of Apple releasing the iPad in 2010.
 
No doubt someone with better knowledge or understanding of the issues will correct me, but this is my reading of the case:

Proview sold the iPad mark to a UK company which subsequently sold it on to Apple. The dispute here is that Proview says that the parent company was not involved in the sale, but that it was sold by one of it's off-spring and is now trying to reverse the whole deal (Proview claims that the sale of the mark for the Chinese market was excluded). Don't know where it leaves the UK company, but Apple & the UK company presumably have contract documents and sales receipts for the transaction.

A Chinese court decided in Proview's favour, agreeing that the subsidiary did not have authority to sell the iPad mark.

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jca24 said:
Looks like they make street lights now.

http://www.proview.com/en/product_line.asp

:apple:
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Those street lights look just like iPads...:D
 
Silly dispute. It isn't like anyone is going to confuse the two products line any more than people get confused with the Ford Fusion automobile and the Gillette Fusion razor.
 
Nebulance said:
the real question is, if Proview had such a big problem, why not make a fuss when the first iPad came out? That doesn't discount their current issue, but it seems a bit ridiculous it took them this long to complain -- or maybe they have, and it's taken this long to get out to the public...
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Chances are, proview wouldn't be suing Apple if the iPad was a flop. This isn't proview protecting their IP, this is proview trying to get a piece of Apples pie. I did a basic Google search, and couldn't find any evidence to show that proview still even makes monitors under the iPad name.
 
Proview might not be able to get an ban, but I think should Apple refuse to settle with them, they could continue to receive ongoing penalties from Apple's use of their trademark. I thought I read somewhere that court would award 1.6billion. I'm assuming either way Apple will have to settle this.
 
I said "good luck" in the other thread and got tons of negatives. Look what happened.

IBmorenegatives. lol
 
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)

He who has the Gold makes the Rules.

Buying an iPad? There's VISA. For everything else there is Power/Control.
 
ChrisTX said:
I did a basic Google search, and couldn't find any evidence to show that proview still even makes monitors under the iPad name.
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They don't have to still be making the product as long as they own the trademark. Try releasing a new product named PowerBook and see how well that goes.
 
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