Yesterday I told you that Apple could be made unable to sell iPad tablets worldwide because an export ban imposed in China would block the possibility of removing the tablets from the Foxconn factories. The Proview company is the one that wants to impose this ban on export and import, but the CEO of the company he revealed as such an objective is very difficult to achieve. Company officials talked to representatives of the customs authority in China who argued that imposing an import/export ban would be extremely difficult to achieve mainly because Apple products are so popular. Secondly, we are talking about the blocking of some factories that employ hundreds of thousands of Chinese, blocking the payment of some taxes, and for the Chinese government the business done by Apple is more important than the rights of those from Proview.
The customs have told us that it will be difficult to implement a ban because many Chinese consumers love Apple products. The sheer size of the market is very big. We have applied to some local customs for the ban and they'll report to the headquarters in Beijing. Some people say that Proview wants to take the chance to make a sum of money from Apple and this is tarnishing our company's reputation. We need to clarify what's the truth behind it.
Practically, Proview has all the rights to request the imposition of this ban, but the customs authorities in China do not want to do this because it would have a lot to lose and this will also affect the Foxconn company. Although those from Proview want to obtain more than 1 billion dollars in compensation from Apple for the use of the iPad brand in China, the attitude of the Chinese government makes it clear that Apple has nothing to worry about at the moment.
The truth is that for a country like China, the Foxconn factories that assemble so many iDevices, the partners that produce some components, the logistics systems needed for transportation plus the taxes paid by Apple have a much higher value than the intellectual property owned by Proview. The attitude is not correct, but we are talking about a communist country.
