Although Apple was fighting a company called Proview on iPad trademark ownership, there is also time for harassing some manufacturers of laptop bags. EPAD is the name of a line of laptop bags produced by a Chinese company and Apple considers that this brand is too similar to the one it "owns" for the iPad. Apple advanced a complaint to the patent and trademark office of China and requests the termination of the trademark and the EBox company's rights over them because they do not show distinctiveness compared to the iPad brand.
On Feb 2, Chinese firm EBox Digital Technology Product received a complaint from Apple, asking the company to give up the EPAD trademark because it closely resembles the iPad name, a spokeswoman with EBox said on Thursday. The complaint had been filed through China's trademark office. EBox is a maker of laptop luggage cases, and has been using the EPAD trademark on its products. The company has no plans to use the EPAD name for any electronics or tablet devices, said the spokeswoman, who would only disclose her surname as Cheng.
Of course, EBox has no intention of giving up the EPAD brand, so there are high chances that a lawsuit will be filed by Apple in the near future. The truth is that between iPad and EPAD there are not many differences that would justify the registration of the word as a trademark, although we are talking about different products, but it depends on how the courts will see the whole problem.
