HONG KONG — A Chinese provincial court said in a statement on Monday that Apple had
settled a lawsuit there by paying $60 million into a court-approved bank account for the
legal rights to use the iPad trademark in China.
“It was done last week, and it was confirmed with a ruling by the higher court,” that was
issued on Monday morning, said Xie Xianghui, a lawyer for the Chinese company involved,
Proview Technology (Shenzhen).
It should take only a week or two for China’s national trademark authority to transfer the iPad
trademark for China to Apple, added Mr. Xie, of the Grandall Legal Group in Shenzhen.
Mr. Xie said that Proview Technology did not regard the settlement amount as especially large,
“but it is O.K.”
Proview Technology is insolvent and close to liquidation, and the money in the court-approved
bank account will be used to repay some of its creditors, he said.
Apple had been in settlement negotiations this spring after the authorities in at least two
Chinese cities began seizing iPads in February.
The U.S. technology company did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment.
According to testimony in the legal fight, Apple retained British lawyers several years ago to set
up a company, IP Application Development, to buy up rights to the iPad name around the world.
Apple paid only £35,000 to a Proview Technology affiliate in Taiwan for that company’s iPad
trademarks in various countries.
But when Apple introduced the iPad with immediate success, Proview Technology (Shenzhen)
said that the transaction had not included the trademark for China. The operation in the city of
Shenzhen, in Guangdong Province in southeastern China, filed a trademark infringement case
against Apple in a Shenzhen court, and the case ended up in provincial court
The Guangdong High People’s Court in Guangzhou, a metropolis of 12 million people that is
the provincial capital, said on Monday that the two sides had reached the settlement and that this
would end the litigation.
Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, has emerged as Apple’s second-largest market
after the United States.
Source: The New York Times