Although it seems hard to believe, a company that manufactures chemical products in China claims that Apple infringes on a trademark related to the name Snow Leopard. The Jiangsu Xuebao company has owned the Snow Leopard brand for more than 10 years and has used this name to promote its dental hygiene products, as well as some electronic devices. Company representatives claim that using the same name to promote Mac OS X Snow Leopard would cause confusion among the Chinese, so Jiangsu Xuebao is demanding $80.000 and an official apology from Apple for the unauthorized use of the brand, but the companies that sold Macs with this software is also sued.
A court in China received already the summons request filed by Jiangsu Xuebao and on July 10th the first appearance in this case will take place. Those from Jiangsu Xuebao are mainly known for the production of toothpaste and detergents, but the company that owns the trademark is also involved in the field of electronic products and software development, so it remains to be seen what the demands of the company's lawyers will be. Apple could spend more money defending itself than concluding an agreement with Jiangsu Xuebao, so it remains to be seen how Cupertino will proceed.
