The legal battles between Apple and Proview continue in China, where the American company has sent its lawyers to defend its interests in a lawsuit what happened today. In a court hearing that took place in a high court in Guangdong, Apple's lawyers argued that in China consumers have already associated the iPad brand with the Apple tablet and returning the ownership of the brand to Proview would be detrimental users. Apple claims that if Proview were to launch products under the iPad brand on the Chinese market, it would mislead consumers who would think they would make a connection between that product and the Apple company.
"Consumers in China have come to associate this trademark with Apple's tablet computer," Shi Yusheng, one of the lawyers representing Apple, said during the hearing. "Allowing Proview to use the brand to make their own products would cause confusion and harm consumer interests."
Of course, the representatives of Proview claimed the opposite, but the figures regarding the sales of the iPAD computer launched by them in the early 2000s reveal the fact that the brand would be much more useful if it remained with Apple. During the meeting, the lawyers of the Apple company claimed that the iPad brand bought from Proview Taiwan gives it the right to sell the product in China, but the lawyers of the Chinese company argue the opposite, arguing that the representatives of that subsidiary only sold the part of the brand that that subsidiary had rights to. Apple's lawyers claim that representatives of the Shenzen branch participated in those negotiations, so the rights to the brand were acquired in full and not just for certain countries.
In the end, the court will decide who is right in this war, but so far Apple has managed to obtain a small victory only in Shenzen.
