Apple has had quite the legal battle going throughout China, after a company named Proview claimed Apple is infringing on their trademark of the word ‘Ipad’. Apple says their has already been a settlement over the trademark, but many China courts are banning the iPad throughout China.
The Associated Press reports that another local China court in Huizhou has banned the iPad…
Xie Xianghui, a lawyer for Shenzhen Proview Technology, said the Intermediate People’s Court in Huizhou, a city in southern China’s Guangdong province, had ruled on Friday that distributors should stop selling iPads in China. The ruling, which was also reported widely in China’s state media, may not have a far-reaching effect. In its battle with Apple, Proview is utilizing lawsuits in several places and also requesting commercial authorities in 40 cities to block iPad sales.
Huizhou, which is located in southern China’s Guangdong province, isn’t the only city that has banned the iPad. Many others have, and Proview looks to show no signs of stopping, setting out to ban the iPad from more than 40 cities.
Apple continues their fight against these rulings, appealing every ruling that’s placed on them. Apple continues saying they own the rights to the Proview trademark and bought it from Proview many years ago. The supposed sale price was $55,000 in 2009.
In an interesting move, Apple requested Amazon China to remove the iPad from their online store a few weeks ago. It’s not clear what exactly Apple’s motives were.
Last week, Chinese Customs told Proview that it would be difficult to enforce a widespread ban throughout China on the iPad. However, some cities and stores have enforced it. It’s not clear if Huizhou will heavily enforce the ban.
As the fight rolls on, there has yet to been a ruling in Mainland China over the patent dispute. Â Expect more to come out of this case soon, but no signs of ending seem to be in sight.