Monday, February 13th 2012
Chinese Authorities Start Removing Apple iPad off Shelves Following Court Ruling
Authorities and retailers have started taking Apple iPad off shelves in China, as an implementation of a court-order. Representatives of State agency Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AIC) have started confiscating inventories of the tablet from some retailers, while other retailers have voluntarily de-listed it, and taken it off shelves. The court-order is a result of a long drawn out battle between Chinese company ProView and Apple over the trademark "iPad".
Apple acquired the "iPad" brand name from ProView in 2006 by what the latter alleged as "dubious means", by floating a proxy shell company called "IP Application Development", without ProView having the slightest clue that it was dealing with Apple, which would go on use it for one of its biggest product lines. The only way Apple can get out of this mess is by working out a fresh agreement with ProView over the use of the iPad trademark, and possibly paying up to US $1.5 billion, which ProView seeks in damages. Apple is already having to pay a fine of $38 million to the Chinese regulators.
Sources:
iFeng, China.com.cn, TheNextWeb, Engadget
Apple acquired the "iPad" brand name from ProView in 2006 by what the latter alleged as "dubious means", by floating a proxy shell company called "IP Application Development", without ProView having the slightest clue that it was dealing with Apple, which would go on use it for one of its biggest product lines. The only way Apple can get out of this mess is by working out a fresh agreement with ProView over the use of the iPad trademark, and possibly paying up to US $1.5 billion, which ProView seeks in damages. Apple is already having to pay a fine of $38 million to the Chinese regulators.
29 Comments on Chinese Authorities Start Removing Apple iPad off Shelves Following Court Ruling
Hail Apple!
On topic though. If Apple did buy the name under a shell company it was to get it at vastly recued costs. Hypothetically if you knew a massive tech company wanted your IP you'd charge a hell of a lot.
I can see the Chinese point of view here. Why use a shell company if it wasn't to buy through the back door.
brb, going to register the name. Easy $$.
Even though the Chinese government is probably corrupt.
Maybe is arseholes stop banning names and ideas the world would be a better place.
I remember when you couldn't buy a Samsung galaxy Tab in Australia due to some legal crap.
JesusJobs Do? China? You bet your ass they have the power to do that. If the communist party of China doesn't approve, it doesn't happen, period. The thing is, China profits big from Apple's manufacturing so they'll tolerate production, just not sales. China would rather a Chinese sourced iPad clone sell in China only for Chinese. They do the same thing with cars and most other consumer goods--that way they take external money and don't let any real value leave. It's how they can grow the way they do. It's a big problem for global corporations because, despite using cloned products, the average Chinese individual hasn't even heard of the huge brands we're all familiar with like Coca-Cola, General Motors, or Ford Motor Company that they are purchasing clones of. Hell, they probably haven't even heard of Exxon Mobile, Shell, or all the other big oil providers because as far as they know, all the oil comes from the great Communist Party. The Chinese--they got this shit down to a science.@btarunr: I want to eat your avatar. :(
Anyway, well at least Apple now feels how nice it is when this whole patenting stupid system can affect them. China is surely a big market to loose.
Has anyone else noticed how many things are not anymore in favour of Apple since Steve Jobs died?
you have forever distorted capitalism by telling all companies that its ok to make useless products...(except the ipod)... and lie to consumers when there is a real problem...how does a phone with no service get full bars?
China is pretty f*cked up, I have to admit... Was just a few weeks ago BMW was laughed out of court when they complained about a company cloning their X5 for sale in China, and now they are doing it to Ford with the F150 too...with a 4 cylinder diesel...which is not just trademark infringement, it's defamation of character :(