Sign in / up

back to article More Chinese shopkeepers hide their iPad stock

More shops in China have been told to pull iPads from their shelves in the wake of the ruling that the fondleslab infringes on a trademark owned by Proview International Holding. Retailers in Shanghai, Xuzhou and Qingdao have all been ordered by the authorities to pull Apple's tablets off their shelves, Reuters reported. …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MIC Gadget have great coverage, including photos from Proview's facilities in Shenzen

    http://micgadget.com/22093/explore-proviews-abandoned-facilities-in-shenzhen/

    They also say "all of the Proview International assets, including the trademark ‘IPAD’, have been seized as mortgage to eight banks — Bank of China, Minsheng Bank, China Development Bank, Guangdong Development Bank, Bank of Communications, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Huaxia Bank and Shenzhen Ping An Bank. [...]. Since Proview’s assets have been frozen by the banks, the eight banks become the beneficiaries of the iPad trademark."

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Some places are pulling it and others not

      From this, it appears that apple are still listing iPads as available on it's Chinese store

      http://micgadget.com/22041/apple-orders-amazon-china-to-stop-selling-ipad-proview-lawyer-is-surprised/

      0 0
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Banks...

      As we know are always above the law. Guilty or not, no court will ever find against them.

      This will only end when the cheque has enough digits. As they started asking for something in the billion range I suspect it'll drop a zero during negotiations and end in the hundred million one...

      The only other scenario is Apple putting some of their their billions into these fine banks' financial instruments... which is nice because they'll then invariably use them to purchase more Rolls-Royces from good old Blighty.

      0 0
  2. Turtle_Fan

    Can someone enlighten me?

    ..."We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago."

    IANAL but "worldwide rights" vs. "10 different countries", doesn't seem right. (Before we ever start on learning which were the 10 countries etc/ etc.)

    1 0
    1. jai
      Reply Icon

      Re: Can someone enlighten me?

      I took it to mean that Proview only applied for and registered the rights in 10 countries. So their worldwide rights is equal to just 10 countries.

      In the rest of the countries not including those 10, then Proview have no rights to the trademark and Apple was able to claim it without contention.

      2 0
  3. G2

    the chinese courts' decision is correct imho because they bought the rights from Proview Taiwan not Proview China.

    These are separate (but related) legal entities.

    The taiwanese company is in charge of international stuff and the chinese company takes care of matters within the borders of China.

    The taiwanese was the trademark administrator for international usage but the owner is the chinese company and that one never sold the mark. It was the taiwanese company that did it and they only sold the international rights not the rights within china as they had no right to sell that.

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Have you seen the contract?

      Please share it with us, otherwise you can't really be sure any of that is true, can you?

      The version that the media is reporting is that Apple's contract with Proview Taiwan covered "global trademarks". However Proview China, which is not only related but actually a subsidiary of Proview Taiwan, made a separate registration.

      Now one Chinese court so far said that the Taiwanese company's "global trademark" couldn't cover the subsidiary's registration in China, so - according to this version - Apple was mis-sold the trademark rights.

      0 0
  4. jai

    HK court's ruling seems quite damning against Proview

    "The court said, in its findings, that Proview, its subsidiaries and at least one other company had combined together "with the common intention of injuring Apple," by breaching the agreement over the iPad name. The court, calling the event a conspiracy, further said Proview had "attempted to exploit the situation as a business opportunity," by asking for money."

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: HK court's ruling seems quite damning against Proview

      However Hong Kong legal system is distinct from China's, Hong Kong is based on (British) common law and the other is a (German inspired) civil law system so these decisions may not translate.

      I guess it's great having a country with all systems at hand, you can pick whatever suits the intended purpose best.

      Apple may end up selling the iPads from Hong Kong, and China being - as they said - unable to block the imports due to it's popularity. The Chinese are certainly not foreign to the idea of making up complex arrangements to effectively achieve the same thing.

      That is, as long as the right cogs in the machine get "greased" properly...

      0 0
  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Pint

    Meanwhile, back at the Samsung secret bunker...

    It's pop-corn and drinks all-round.

    2 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Meanwhile, back at the Lucky Litigation law firm in Shenzen

      Companies including "Taian Galaxy Optoelectronics", "RC Galaxy Electro Tech" and the "Foshan Nanhai Galaxy Sanitary Ware" - given the latter's trademark scope covers ALL shitty Galaxy products - prepare to sue Samsung over the Galaxy trademark.

      Or do you really believe Samsung has an exclusive trademark on the "Galaxy" name?

      1 1
  6. Eduard Coli
    Gimp

    What's it "really" about

    This is really about tyres and not fondleslabs, no?

    0 0
  7. MacGyver
    Facepalm

    As a joke...

    They should pay to re-brand all the iPads to be sold in China under the iProuVueSux label, or simply not sell them there. Also if you look at Proview's IPAD, it is really just an old CRT based iMac ripoff. So Proview named their iMac ripoff IPAD, and now are suing Apple for 2 billion dollars because Apple forgot that Taiwan wasn't part of China .

    So we have traded innovation and creating for helping lawyers make money. Welcome to the year 2012, the year of the lawyer.

    1 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like