Yes, but Proview doesn't have a product out on the market with the name iPad. What I am suggesting is finding a loophole in the licensing laws. If Proview initially had a product with the name iPad, then yes. The fact is, they don't.
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Proview Seeking to Cut Off Apple's Worldwide Supply of iPads
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Yes, but Proview doesn't have a product out on the market with the name iPad. What I am suggesting is finding a loophole in the licensing laws. If Proview initially had a product with the name iPad, then yes. The fact is, they don't.
And you know this how? From your trusted inside sources in the Chinese government? From your deep know-how of the Chinese legal system? Give me a break.
Here's food for thought: Proview is a Taiwanese company. Not Chinese. Big distinction. There are no "domestic" interests being protected here. If anything, the "domestic" interest is in not pissing off the most valuable company in the world who pours money into the economy and employs, indirectly, hundreds of thousands.
If you cared to read up on the facts of the case, you'd see that this is simply an instance of Apple's lawyers assuming too much and not reading the underlying trademark documents carefully enough. Proview, a struggling company on the verge of bankruptcy, is simply doing what many other companies in their situation would do. Proview just hit an Ace high flush on the river and wants its payout.
http://business.time.com/2012/02/07/apple-faces-1-6-billion-legal-challenge-over-ipad-name-in-china/#ixzz1mHgRFXvF
this has been going for some time.
from the article:
The dispute stretches back years, and is fairly convoluted, but here are the basics: Proview International Holdings says it registered the iPad name for use in Taiwan and China in 2000 and 2001, respectively. In 2006, Apple bought the iPad trademark from a Proview subsidiary, Taiwan-based Proview Electronics, which now says the deal only included the rights to the name in Taiwan, not China. It says those rights are owned by yet another subsidiary, Proview Technology, which is based in the southern China city of Shenzhen.
and FYI the dispute is between Proview and Apple, not Pegatron
Well the assembly folks aren't Apple employees, they are Foxconn employees so they don't count. And given the Cupe campus and the 2 to 1 US v anywhere else store counts I would hazard that a good 50% of the retail staff is in the US.
So Apple likely does have 50% of THEIR workforce here. Perhaps what you meant to say was if they sell here then at least 50% of their product must be produced by US companies on US soil.
But you are on MacRumors, the center of the reality distortion field where according to most site visitors Apple cannot do wrong, only products with the fruit logo on them are good products, where Apple is the sole inventor and innovator on the planet and all others only steal from them and where Apple is not just a corporation, but the one and only Holy Church, the Defender of the Faith, the sole key to happiness and the only reason to live. Feel free to add something to that list in case I have forgotten anything.
China being the home base for the worlds knock offs, counterfeit items, patent infringement, corruption, trademark and copyright violation can go **** right off as far as I'm concerned. Rotten bunch of crooked ********, they're the terrorists of the business world in my experience.
Isn't it all the more reason to create a production company else where? like USA Soil? Hint hint? Or is that going to double the pricing of the apple products anyway? At least brings more employment and money to the US soil and the way the economy. If the chinese people can do it, well, why can't we?
China has a sovereign wealth fund that owns AAPL shares and shares of its suppliers and vendors. They own no AAPL bonds or debt.
Rocketman
Because, if you believe Apple, they were lead to believe the ducks were in the row. The parent company apparently said 'global rights' not 'global to everywhere that we actually control which doesn't include China and they will refuse to sell to you'.
Apple acted in good faith and thought they had things squared away but then had the rug pulled out by the Chinese branch AFTER the iPad was on sale for scads of money. So they knew the value of the mark was high.
They own the trademark in china, anything produced in china is under their trademark, they're within their right to ask for the export ban.
Time for a naming change.
Apple just needs to drop the "iWhatever" naming scheme and just go with what they use for their TV product.
TV
Phone
Pod
Pad
MacBook Air
OS
Then they wouldn't have to spend all this money trying to trademark everything "i" and register all those same domain names.
Apple just needs to drop the "iWhatever" naming scheme and just go with what they use for their TV product.
TV
Phone
Pod
Pad
MacBook Air
OS
Then they wouldn't have to spend all this money trying to trademark everything "i" and register all those same domain names.
funny I don't know of a single fanboy that has their knickers in a twist over iTVs claims. Just over the blogs claiming that Apple is going to call it the iTV because they are too stupid to know that the name is a trademark (something Apple knows all too well).
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The irony is that if the Chinese government would to approve this import ban it would mean also confiscating any iPads anyone tries to bring into the country. If they turned a blind eye on scalpers then Apple call for them to be sanctioned for not enforcing the ban.
So the government could actually kill the whole scalping game if they actually play by the rules completely. Something Apple hasn't been able to do because as long as there's a market and the means to get the stuff into the country, the scalpers will find a way to buy it.
All of which is part of why I think Apple should just give in and pull the iPad from China, not just change the name. Stop sales now and agree to pull all production out of the country by X deadline in accordance with the legal mandate.
Actually, it would only be the MacPad for the Chinese market, and we'd all have iPads from Brazil, which would go a long way to helping people out of the Favelas (I hope).
There's also one big problem with re-location of an out-of-China facility:
The rare earths that are used to create all the high-tech products are mainly mined in China. And China are not really willing to export those minerals.
So even if a new facility is built in another country, the costs for the minerals would probably be tripled and in limited supply.
So this is, as someone mentioned before, Chinas way of saying "I'm the boss.".
The rare earths that are used to create all the high-tech products are mainly mined in China. And China are not really willing to export those minerals.
So even if a new facility is built in another country, the costs for the minerals would probably be tripled and in limited supply.
So this is, as someone mentioned before, Chinas way of saying "I'm the boss.".
Won't and can't happen! Americans in general aren't willing to hop out of bed in the middle of the night and run down to the assembly line to meet customer demand, or give up their weekends. Apple needs quick-response suppliers, which means workers that put their jobs before anything else. You won't find that in the USA. Just as I always select and purchase products that best fill my needs on quality, features, delivery, and price, Apple will do the same.
China is like Russia. It is run by mafia-type families.
We have the Samsung family. The family that own Foxconn etc.
This isn't between Apple and Proview. This is a war between Samsung and Apple using Proview as the proxy.
These "families" will fight to the death to maintain their twisted view of honor and we have been watching it go down live for about two years now.
It seems like it's coming to a head.
The VP of China is visiting the President this week and I'm guessing this family feud will come up in conversation at some point.
This could become more serious than people here think. Apple can't afford to simply stop sales of iPads.
We have the Samsung family. The family that own Foxconn etc.
This isn't between Apple and Proview. This is a war between Samsung and Apple using Proview as the proxy.
These "families" will fight to the death to maintain their twisted view of honor and we have been watching it go down live for about two years now.
It seems like it's coming to a head.
The VP of China is visiting the President this week and I'm guessing this family feud will come up in conversation at some point.
This could become more serious than people here think. Apple can't afford to simply stop sales of iPads.
Apple will exhaust all appeals, sue in other courts etc to block the government from actually starting any export bans until such time as they can just give up and reveal that they already have production in other factories and don't need China to build the iPad anymore so who cares what the government says.
in the meantime they will have already submitted to the import ban and cut off sales in China by any means of the iPad (not just by name but the whole thing) as a gesture of good faith and that will stick. Sucks to be in China but you've always got your knockoffs. Although those might be harder to make when you can't bribe someone at Foxconn to show you the design and the specs