iPads: An Endangered Species in China? 中国高级司法官员应介入iPad商标权纠纷

By newsdoug on February 14, 2012

iPad trademark dispute show signs of spinning out of control Media are buzzing over new reports that iPads may suddenly be disappearing from Chinese store shelves following a court ruling against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) in a trademark dispute, a sign of the turmoil and negative publicity that could be looming if China fails to deal with this situation quickly and transparently. The latest reports say that sellers of Apple products in some places have actually had their iPads confiscated, while many are starting to hide their iPads to avoid potential future confiscations depending on how the case develops. (English article; Chinese article) Apple watchers in China will know the case in question involves the iPad trademark, which was officially registered about a decade ago by an affiliate of a Taiwanese computer maker named Proview. Proview later sold the global rights to the name to a British company, which then sold the rights to Apple for a modest fee prior to the iPad’s global launch. The only problem, it turns out, is that the formal transfer of the iPad name in China was never officially completed, with the result that the Proview affiliate still technically owns the trademark in China. (previous post) Clearly the failure to complete the transfer was a technical mistake, and I can’t really comment on whether it was the fault of the Proview affiliate or the Chinese government agency in charge of trademarks. But regardless of who is to blame, rather than admit a mistake was made and trying to fix it, the Proview affiliate is now trying to blackmail Apple into paying a big fee for the China trademark again, and a Chinese court in Shenzhen has ruled in its favor, meaning Apple may officially be in violation of Chinese trademark law by selling its computers under the iPad name in China. One Chinese media report says the government is currently deliberating what to do about this case, and I’ve previously said that higher court officials should step in quickly and mediate this case in a fair and transparent way before it spins out of control and seriously tarnishes the reputation of China’s court systems. This latest wave of marketplace panic that is seeing vendors hide their product for fear of confiscation is exactly the kind of chaos that needs to be avoided, and I’ll repeat my call here once more for high-level judiciary officials to intervene and settle this dispute that is causing major waves despite being largely based on a technicality.

Bottom line: Chinese judicial officials need to quickly step in and mediate a fair solution to a dispute involving the iPad trademark, or risk seeing chaos and confusion emerge in the market.

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