After a few days without any reaction regarding the problems in China, here is an Apple spokesperson stated alleging that Proview did not respect its part of the contract regarding the purchase of the brand for the iPad tablet. Apple claims to have bought the registered trademark for 10 countries around the world, but those from Proview refuse to recognize the purchase, even though the courts in Hong Kong have won Apple's case, according to the spokesperson's statement. The good thing about this whole issue is that the Chinese government is taking Apple's side and announced yesterday that the import/export ban requested by Proview has extremely low chances of being applied.
We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple, and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. We will not stop selling iPad in brick-and-mortar stores until the final verdict on Apple's case is out.
The lawyer of the Proview company claims that in Hong Kong the courts did not side with Apple, but only imposed a ban on the sale of the iPad brand in order to protect the rights in dispute. The decision of the court in Hong Kong could not influence the process in China, but even Apple does not seem willing to comply with a sales ban decision until a court gives a final decision in this case.
Apple is worried the iPad trademark will be resold before the hearing is finished, so itasked the Hong Kong court to forbid Proview Shenzhen from doing that," he said, adding that the court's decision to prevent the trademark from being transferred cannot be seen as showing that it has ruled in favor of Apple. The root cause of the dispute is Apple' underestimation of the legal complications in China.
Apple on the other hand to askt to all companies that are not authorized resellers to withdraw the iPad tablet from sale, and Amazon and two other companies in China have already done so. Apple will keep the tablet for sale in the online store and in physical stores, but it is not known how long the legal dispute will last.
The Cupertino, Calif., consumer electronics giant asked Amazon in China to stop selling iPads because it is not an authorized reseller, according to people familiar with the matter. Amazon has since removed iPads offered by other resellers on its Chinese website as well.
