Week I told you that Apple and Proview would have started to discuss the possibility of ending the legal dispute in China regarding the registered trademark for the iPad tablet. Now we know that a Chinese court "convinced" the two parties to discuss the problem and try to solve it outside the court. It seems that the court wants the parties to reach a mutual agreement by which the lawsuit will be withdrawn and the iPad tablet will remain on sale because banning its sale would cause problems for everyone.
A Chinese court is mediating talks between Apple Inc. and Proview Technology. in a bid to get the companies to settle their disputes over the iPad trademark in the country.
"On the one hand, we are trying to process this case, and on the other, we are working on encouraging both sides to settle," Zhao Le, an official at the foreign affairs office of the Higher People's Court of Guangdong, said by telephone yesterday. Zhao said he had no further information on the effort.
Those from Proview are demanding several billion dollars in compensation for the period in which Apple would have used, apparently without the right, the iPad brand to sell its tablet in China, but Apple claims that it legally bought it from a subsidiary of Proview a few years ago years. The parent company does not recognize the applicability of sales in China and this is where the process started in 2010, but the year 2012 could bring a favorable finality if the parties reach an agreement.
