Slashdot Mirror
Apple Could Lose $1.6 Billion In iPad Lawsuit
redletterdave writes "Proview Technology, which currently uses the 'iPad' name on several of its products including computer monitors, stands to win up to $1.6 billion and an apology from Apple for allegedly infringing upon Proview's trademarked name to use on its bestselling tablet. Proview International, which owns subsidiaries Proview Technology in Shenzhen and Proview Electronics in Taiwan, originally registered the name 'iPad' in Taiwan in 2000 and mainland China in 2001. Proview eventually sued Apple in 2011, and even though the Cupertino-based company retaliated with a counter-suit of its own, Apple lost the case in local Chinese courts. Depending on the court's findings, Apple could be fined anywhere from $38 million to the $1.6 billion that Proview is seeking. In addition to the money, Proview also wants Apple to apologize. 'We have prepared well for a long-term legal battle,' said one of Proview's lawyers."
Couldn't they sue as well?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Not that $1.6 billion would hurt them much, but all they'd have to do is threaten to stop selling the iPad in China. At that point, the government will just make Proview go away.
The title says it all.
Let Apple taste some of their medicine. They consider themselves to be so smart, and such savvy marketers. Yet they failed to do a few simple searches to make sure that they were not co-opting someone else's name? Or perhaps they did, and decided that it did not matter? If the latter, they double plus good on them getting sued.
Whenever greedy slave trader Apple loses money, a Unicorn is born farting rainbows.
Ah.. ha.. an American company lost in Chinese court to a Chinese company? A Chinese company that Apple paid for the trademark... yeah... never saw that one coming...
Chinese gov. backs the theft of IP, reselling of copies, etc. Yet, all that happens is hand slapping. NOW, Apple could get 1.6 BILLION dollar over the use of the name. Amazing. Who knows. PERHAPS, it will lead to western, esp. American, companies re-thinking what they are doing in China.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Apple supposedly purchase the trademark in 2009 from Proview, but it appears that they may have bought it from their Taiwanese counterparts, which the Chinese portion is using to its advantage. China being China, they are choosing to side with the Chinese-based business.
If China awards the company anything remotely close to $1 billion, then I hope Apple pulls out of China. Wishful thinking as it is, it would be interesting to watch. I also hope all such companies fail, but that's pretty obvious.
(IP: Intellectual Property not Internet Protocol).
I don't know the particulars of this case but, assuming Apple IS violating their trademark, what are the chances that this will cause other Chinese companies to stop infringing on foreign trademarks, copyrights and patents?
If this really changed the way Chinese companies legally did business (and stopped their alleged illegal theft of IP through industrial espionage) then 1.6 Billion would be a small price to pay. Way to take it on the chin for America, Apple!
all your iPad are belong to us!
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
$1.6 Billion payment to Proview = Chinese Government Kickback.
Of course my babelfish may be horked.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
In what way are they the same country?
Just like US and Canada are the same country.
That's a huge topic, but is partially summarized by the 1992 Consensus which is basically that both PRC (mainland China) and ROC (Taiwan) agree there is only one "China", but disagree over which government is legitimate.
There are two companies. They paid for use of the trademark from one based out of Tiawan. The Chinese arm of the company is filing the lawsuit. Not sure witch is the parent company. I would assume the Tiawan based one since that is who Apple paid. China does not reconize Tiawan as a seperate country. So there may be some politics involved in this dispute.
Hows that medicine taste, like apple sauce?
In what way are they the same country?
Taiwan is either a Chinese province in rebellion or a Chinese government in exile, depending on who you're talking to. For all practical purposes the rest of the world treats them as two independent sovereign nations, but the Chinese, whether they be ROC or PROC, don't see themselves that way.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Taiwan+China are technically the same country)
No they're not. Taiwan is technically "The Republic of China". Mainland China is technically "The People's Republic of China".
Similar sounding formal names. Very different countries.
What would it cost to buy the company, if it wasn't for this law suit? I doubt it'd be much more than a few million dollars if they are near bankruptcy?
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Apparently by logging in I ended up on a different Apple story. Sorry. :-(
That's "AAPL", fwiw.
Isn't it just as likely that Apple could find $1.6 billion between the cushions in the sofa in their living room? Besides, why worry about losing billions when you could make...... mill..err, more billions than you lose? Apple will pay something and keep making money faster than the rest of us can even imagine. A long time ago I thought that would be so cool. Now I'm not so sure. Apple isn't anything like the version of this company that I pictured in this position though I have to admit that all the signs were there even back when they were struggling just to keep their heads above water.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Apple engages in these same style of patent lawsuits. When you swallow your own medicine, it doesn't taste so good - it tastes, well, like medicine.
So, it wasnt possible to buy justice in chinese courts as an u.s. company after all ?
too bad. too bad. for apple, of course. for us rest, this may be a good thing.
Read radical news here
It's like two guys in a bar fighting over the ugliest chick.
Apple could have picked a million better names that weren't trademarked.
Whoever picked IPad should be shot, if their still alive.
Kind of like assuming the group of hippies walking towards you isn't going to mug you.
The GP analogy was more believable.
Apple has finally met someone who can spank them good - the PRC. Do you really think the ChiComm courts aren't going to rule in favor of a company owned by a Party member? Apple is about to get their ego knocked downed a notch. You can argue all you want, but this will be decided in a party back room, with a lot of money; not in a way a bunch of naive American lawyers might think.
Apple will take it like a prison bitch and move on. What are they going to do, leave their biggest manufacturing hub and the world's fastest growing tech market? Yeah, good luck with that. Apple has learned what GM and others learned long ago. You do business in China at the pleasure of China. Apple's only been in the screwing game for 30+ years; the Chinese have been doing it for over 5,000.
Ok, I've seen the first two examples repeated a few times, as if it is self evident that these are good things. But take the first example:
Assume that the workers were roused at midnight. 96 hours later, the rate of phone production is 10k/day. Presumably the foreman could have waited 8 hours, and started the shift at 8am. Production then reaches the 10k/day mark, a mere 104 hours later.
It sounds like a great anecdote, but I'm not convinced this sort of flexibility is a necessary condition for industrial wealth. A Chinese person already has all the incentive they need to work hard. I hardly think there'd be a massive decline in productivity if the Chinese factories and their customers decided not to apply 18th Century work practices.
Plan My Week for iPhone
Surely, if Proview is established as the owner of the trademark within China, then the iPads being produced in China by Foxcon are counterfeit items. Could that be the basis for an injunction banning the export of these items?
That would be an excessively heavy hammer to bash an enormous settlement out of Apple.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of litigious bastards.
How could Apple have thought for 3 nanoseconds that they could possibly prevail against a Chinese company in a Chinese court. The opinion was probably written before the trial even began.
It would take several years to spin up new factories in other countries and achieve the yields they do in a seasoned factory. It would probably cost a lot more than $1.6B to do it.
But? What is the benefit of 24-bit Voxel over 32-bit or 64-bit voxels? Or was that name created when the 16-bit Voxels were all the rage?
Threaten to buy the company, and then to bribe the law into executing the former executives. Case closed.
Fandroids hate facts.
With the way the various lawsuits are turning against them now, they should have named it the iPay.
I8-D
If Apple threatens to move all of their device production out of China
There's a reason why Apple has its production in China, the same reason why all other companies do it; If they threaten to move out the Chinese government will just call their bluff.
The Apple needs to counter-sue the bastidges at Proview for infringing on their 'i" moniker that they popularized with the first iMac in 1998.
www.chihuahuarescue.com- Help to end dog abuse, abandonment and cruelty
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs
Proof that MadTV Came up with "Ipad" many years before Apple ever uttered the words. That commercial parody came out the exact same time as the FIRST GENERATION Ipod.. They were parodying the first generation ipod commercials, at the time of that parody airing there was no such thing as an ipod touch or an iphone.
There should be an easy way for companies with global markets to do a global trademark search and registration that applies in all jurisdictions in the world. Can you imagine a startup trying to track down potential name conflicts with all the disparate databases in the world for tracking such information?
Sure the application of trademark and patent enforcement has to be done through the local courts, but there should be a resource for finding out if your proposed name is even available. The best I was able to do was to do some Google and Bing searches for "Singularity One" and "Singularity", which showed no one else using the name except a Microsoft internal project code name called "singularity" and a European company which has a non-trademarked product they call "singularity." All other references were to the philosophical "Technological Singularity" that I was alluding to.
"Coke" would have a heck of a time trying to register their trademark nowadays compared to having grown into a global brand instead of trying to establish branding from the get-go.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Given the world is trademark crazy (well the big companies and lawyers, anyway), and given that there are only 456,976 four character words (using the western 26 character alphabet) - how close are we to every four character word being owned by somebody?
I have.
They build infrastructure of Pharaohnic proportions, fully functional towns if needed (amenities, parks, cycling lines, public transport, living quarters).
In the US people are barking at President Obama for trying to build a fast train.
That is the difference.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.