Chinese firm slaps $1.6bln lawsuit against Apple for using iPad trademark

Asia Bulletin (ANI) Thursday 9th February, 2012

A Chinese tech company has said that it owns the rights to the iPad trademark and sued Apple for 1.6 billion dollars.

China-based Proview Electronics won its case in December against the US-based tech giant for alleged infringement of its trademarked iPad name.

Now, Proview lawyers have that they plan to ask for 10 billion Yuan as compensation and have also filed for a temporary restraining order to stop Apple from selling and marketing the iPad in China, The Daily Mail reports.

"We ask the court to stop selling and marketing for Apple's iPad in China. We also demand an apology," the paper quoted Lawyer Xie Xianghui, as saying.

According to the Global Times, Xie said that a court in Beijing was ready to 'slap Apple with a 240 million Yuan fine, but this was suspended because Apple has appealed against the December ruling.

Proview registered the IPAD trademark in 2001 in China for its own unsuccessful tablet computer called the I-PAD.

Apple bought the trademark from display manufacturer Proview Electronics (Taiwan) for 55,000 dollars in 2006.

But Proview claimed the deal did not include the rights to the trademark in China, as those were owned by Proview Technology (Shenzhen), a subsidiary of Proview International in Hong Kong. (ANI)