iPad trademark dispute heats up, provokes debate

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The impact of a legal dispute over the use of the trademark "iPad" has spread to more Chinese cities, prompting stores to remove the popular Apple tablet computers from shelves as of Tuesday and kicked off a new round of heated online discussion.

Apple plunged into a legal dilemma after losing a court case to Proview Shenzhen, which claimed the rights to use the name "iPad" on the Chinese mainland, in December 2011, leaving iPad sales in the company's fastest-growing market up in the air.

Although Apple launched an appeal and the final verdict has yet to be decided, authorities in some Chinese cities have taken action to seize iPad products after receiving complaints from Proview Shenzhen.

In Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei province, stores have stopped selling iPads and torn down advertisements, fearing their presence may provoke penalties from local authorities.

The withdrawal came after the Administration for Industry and Commerce in the city's Xinhua district raided stores and confiscated iPad products, according to sales staff in Shijiazhuang.

"They [the administration] seized several iPad 2s and took away our account book, and now we only dare sell iPads covertly," Jiao, a sales consultant at an authorized Apple retailer, told Xinhua, preferring to give only her surname.

The administration has declined to comment on the raid, but said an investigation was underway.

iPads were also removed from shelves in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan province, after a district administration raided an authorized Apple retailer and sealed 87 of the store's iPad stock, preventing the store from selling the computer tablets.

iPad vendor accounts also disappeared from amazon.cn and 360buy, two popular online B2C platforms in China, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. company has held its own in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai, where trademark authorities said they were still looking into the case and would not take action until the investigation concludes.

In Apple's official store in Beijing's Xidan shopping district, business bustled as usual, and most customers were unaware of the ongoing legal issue.

"Apple is still Apple with or without a different trademark, I will buy its products nevertheless," said a customer surnamed Liu.

The news attracted much attention on Sina Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like microblog service.

A netizen using the screen name "Sweety Rainbow" said that the dispute shows that Chinese companies have raised their intellectual property rights (IPR) protection awareness.

Some netizens believe that Proview aims at taking advantage of the lawsuit to make some money in order to save the company from bankruptcy.

Proview Shenzhen, which operates with a debt of about 1.15 billion yuan (181.9 millon U.S. dollars), demanded 10 billion yuan in compensation over the lawsuit against Apple, the Guangzhou Daily reported Tuesday.

Netizen "Wang Ran" remarked that the ultimate point of IPR protection is not to give some companies a chance to get something for nothing.

However, many netizens care more about who has made the products rather than who owns the trademark.

Netizen "randomwalk" wrote that the value of the trademark mostly relies on Apple's high-profile credit, innovation, and service. Chinese companies should learn from the case and pay more attention to the innovation of their own products.

Proview Technology (Shenzhen) is a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-headquartered Proview International Holdings Limited, which also has a branch in Taipei.

Proview Taipei registered the iPad trademark in a number of countries and regions as early as 2000, and Proview Shenzhen registered the trademark on the Chinese mainland in 2001.

Apple bought the rights to use the trademark from Proview Taipei in February 2010 via IP Application Development Limited (IP), a company registered in Britain. However, Proview Shenzhen claims it still reserves the right to use the trademark on the Chinese mainland. The two sides have been tangled in a legal battle ever since.

The Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Shenzhen rejected a lawsuit by Apple and IP accusing Proview Shenzhen of infringing on the iPad trademark in December 2011.

Apple has appealed to the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province. The case is still pending.