Apple Wins iPad VICTORY in China

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) settled for $60 million a lawsuit for the legal rights to use the iPad trademark in China, a provincial court said in a statement on Monday.

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“It was done last week, and it was confirmed with a ruling by the higher court” that was issued on Monday morning, said Xie Xianghui, a lawyer for Proview Technology (Shenzhen).

It should take only a week or two for China’s national trademark authority to transfer the iPad trademark to Apple, said Xie.

Proview didn’t regard the settlement amount to be especially large, according to Xie, but the company is insolvent and close to liquidation, and the $60 million, a drop in the bucket for Apple, will be used to repay some of its creditors.

Apple has been in settlement negotiations since this past spring after authorities in at least two Chinese cities began seizing iPads in February. But according to testimony in the legal fight, Apple began several years ago to pursue rights to the iPad name around the world, recruiting lawyers to set up a company, IP Application Development, with that express purpose.

Apple paid only 35,000 pounds to a Proview Technology affiliate in Taiwan for that company’s iPad trademarks in various countries, according to the New York Times. But when Apple introduced the iPad in China, Proview Technology (Shenzhen) said the transaction had not included the trademark for China. The settlement reached last week puts an end to litigation.

Greater China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, is Apple’s second-biggest market after the United States.

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