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."

Comments

And Apple's Worried?

[eagle1361]

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.

Re:And Apple's Worried?

[sideslash]

I don't think directly or indirectly threatening the Chinese government is in Apple's best interests. All the government would have to do is threaten to shut down Apple's Chinese manufacturing facilities and they'd be back to square one. Given how defensive Apple is about their own trademarks, I do find the whole spectacle amusing now that they've been caught in hypocrisy on that count. With that said, I'm sure they'll work out a backroom deal of some kind, everybody will save face in some way, and life will go on.

Re:And Apple's Worried?

[Defenestrar]

No, this is the cost of doing business poorly. A trademark search needs to be international in scope if you plan on making an international product. On top of damages Apple should be prohibited from further infringement (rename the product in countries with a previously registered trademark). There was a similar debacle (within the US registry if I remember) over the iPhone. I think it was settled, but the infringing product (Apple's iPhone) should have been pulled off the shelves, relabeled, and future infringement explicitly prohibited. It seems that Apple only cares about IP when they can use it to keep others out of their business - the evidence here is that they don't even bother looking to see if they infringe in a direction they want to go.

Re:And Apple's Worried?

[Whatanut]

Actually, I would assume they did do a trademark search. They found that this company owned the trademark and bought it from them. However, this company claims that they didn't sell the trademarks for China and Taiwan. Just everywhere else.

Fine print...

Re:And Apple's Worried?

[JDG1980]

you realize that Apple relies on cheap Chinese slave labor to make iPads at $499/ea, right? And if Apple pulled out of China they'd have nowhere else to go. America isn't an option because of labor regulations and an expensive workforce. iPads would be up at $1499 and still losing money, iPhones would be $1000 subsidized and America's economy would take a larger nosedive than China's. Brazil? They've already tried that and it's as bad as America.

Bullshit. The differences in manufacturing costs amount to a few dollars per unit. From the New York Times:

the cost, excluding the materials, of building a $1,500 computer in Elk Grove [California] was $22 a machine. In Singapore, it was $6. In Taiwan, $4.85.

So we're talking about $22, not $1000. You're off by over an order of magnitude. Sure, moving the supply chains from China to the USA would be a big challenge, but that's a one-time expense.

Re:And Apple's Worried?

[narcc]

America isn't an option because of labor regulations and an expensive workforce. iPads would be up at $1499 and still losing money

Bullshit See thisForbes article.

Using the correct labor costs of assembling an iPad 2 in the U.S., an iPad 2 made in the U.S would cost $445 ($325 for parts + $120 for labor), as opposed to a Chinese iPad’s cost of $335 ($325 for parts + $10 for labor). Assembling the iPad 2 in the U.S. and selling it for $729 would bring Apple’s gross margin down to 39%, not the 15.25% cited to by Mr. Thompson.

That a 39% margin vs. the current 54% margin.

Re:And Apple's Worried?

[dimeglio]

That might be true. I think Apple tries its best to avoid or settle trademark disputes but it's impossible to know about all of the products. What's funny in this case is the suit is originating from a country where knock-off products are common place and culturally entrenched. Even the Apple Store was copied. It's kinda ironic.

Re:Good

[jythie]

Actually, if you read the piece, they bought the name off the company before they started marketing the iPad, but now the company is coming back and claiming that Apple only purchased the name for use outside China. So either they did a real dumb, or this company is trying to use local corruption to shake money out of a foreign company that they backstabed and are trying to double dip on the deal.

Isn't the summary missing something?

[PickyH3D]

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.

Re:Isn't the summary missing something?

[luis_a_espinal]

There is a place where they could go where there is a whole huge pool of workers who have had their rights trampled, their savings destroyed, and their ability to think dismantled in a systematic way for decades. It is called The United States and there are people there who will jump at the chance to get a job, no matter how terrible the conditions, how grueling the work, or how poorly compensated they are.

Of course, we're not talking Chinese slave wages, but close.

At Foxconn salaries? You are on drugs if you think so.

Mind you that I would love to see these jobs back in the US, but you are engaging in wishful, triumphalist thinking. These jobs, and all of those jobs WILL NOT COME BACK. Furthermore, it is unreasonable, however much we love this country, to presume replacing $1/hour Chinese workers (if they are lucky) with no benefits such as sick leave with $15/hour (at least) US workers with all the minimal benefits one would typically according to the law.

If it is not China, there is India, or the Philippines or Indonesia or Thailand or Ghana or Brazil or Argentina or Central America or Romania... shall I go on? The time where the majority of the world lived in violent stone age conditions is gone (most likely forever.) New markets and manufacturing grounds are available all over the world.

From a purely capitalistic point of view, it makes no sense to do mind-numbing manufacturing in the US. Even if you were to improve working conditions in China, it will still be immensely cheap. Even in countries with a strong stakeholder's capitalist mentality like Japan are finding out harder and harder to keep tricket-manufacturing jobs within their own borders.

The only way for the US to get these jobs back is with heavy government involvement, greater subsidies (meaning higher taxes), all the stuff that our bovine collective calls "socialism" in a brain-dead, knee-jerking fashion.

Those jobs ain't coming back Sonny boy. We are simply not capable of competing for them anymore. We demand greater salaries and we have higher costs of living than our foreign competitors (not to mention that our competitors actually produce HS graduates that know how to read, write and add fractions, which we don't.)

In other words, unless we do something else entirely, we are in deep shit.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

I can assure you, it will be the last for him.

Re:Good

[compro01]

Let Apple taste some of their medicine.

We're going to need to increase the dosage dramatically if we want them to start paying attention.

Re:Good

[Alan Shutko]

You need to read the history on this one before commenting. It's not a simple matter. In this case, Apple bought the mark from an intermediary who bought the global rights from Proview (Taiwan). Apple claims they bought the rights outright, Proview claims that the china rights were held by a second subsidiary, Proview (Shenzhen)

From http://www.marbridgeconsulting.com/marbridgedaily/archive/article/53231/update_apple_appeals_ipad_trademark_lawsuit#When:12:00:00Z

Apple laid forth a number of views in its appeal, including that the case should be adjudged according to the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; that Proview (Shenzhen) had given written authorization for Proview International Holdings' Taiwan subsidiary, Proview Electronic, to sign a trademark transfer agreement, under the principle of unnamed agency, meaning that all iPad-related trademarks should be considered by the court to have already been transferred by Proview (Shenzhen) to Apple. Apple will also name Proview Electronic as a defendant in the case.

Re:Perhaps the Chinese will respect IP?

[cyfer2000]

China government is there to protect Chinese IP and US government is here to protect US IP. Nothing will change.

Re:Perhaps the Chinese will respect IP?

[MickyTheIdiot]

No... Chinese gov't protects the Chinese and the US gov't protects the top 1% of shareholders who import the Chinese crap. Don't start thinking that the government protects US IP or US people in general. They don't do that.

Re:What about MaxiPad?

[Kenja]

Not till Apple introduces the new 21 inch Max-iPad.

ROC vrs PRC

[ZombieBraintrust]

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.

Re:ROC vrs PRC

[amicusNYCL]

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.

Both companies are subsidiaries of a larger parent company.

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.

Apple bought the trademark from Proview Electronics, and they are now being sued by Proview Technology. Both companies are owned by Proview International, which is based in Hong Kong.

Re:What about MaxiPad?

[Anonymous Coward]

Possibly. Both Maxipads and iPads are used by cunts.

Re:What about MaxiPad?

[hairyfeet]

You joke but you have to admit during the MHz wars things were easier to track, faster was better and the PR rating would give you a pretty good idea when it came to AMD VS Intel. Hell look at the old Athlon and Phenom, Athlon was the budget chip, phenom the more high end, the number by the X told you how many cores and faster was better, simple really.

Now good luck telling shit without a lookup table! Quick tell me what an A4-3300 is? did you say a quad core? WRONG its a dual, WTF? Quick what features separate the i3 2100 from the i5 2500? Does either of those tell you jack shit without a lookup table? NO. Hell the only nice thing i can say is at least AMD isn't playing feature roulette, unlike Intel which you can't tell which ones support which features without a chart, even the bobcat at least does support all the features.

Frankly i think the whole thing is designed to fuck customers, that is the only reason I can think of. it makes it damned near impossible to do a simple side by side comparison of anything, either from different manufacturers or even of the same manufacturers products, so the ONLY thing people can do is "higher priced must be better" which of course don't really tell you shit except it costs more.