A firm trying to stop Apple from using the iPad name in China has launched a legal attack on the consumer electronics giant’s home turf.
A unit of Proview, a major computer monitor maker that fell on hard times during the global financial crisis, is already suing Apple in multiple Chinese jurisdictions and requesting that sales of iPads be suspended across the country.
Proview has filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara County that brings their legal dispute to Silicon Valley.
According to legal experts there could be different outcomes between the US and Chinese cases, but a spreading of the lawsuit could hurt Apple.
“In relation to the US, Apple is going to somewhat have a homeground advantage,” said Elliot Papageorgiou, a Shanghai-based partner and executive at law firm Rouse Legal.
Given the current timeline, Apple would have the greater impetus to come to settlement simply because the ability to disrupt shipments is more immediate
At stake for Apple is its sales and shipments in China, where its CEO Tim Cook said it was merely scratching the surface. Debt-laden Proview, meanwhile, needs to come up with a viable rescue plan before mid-2012 or face delisting from the Hong Kong stock exchange.
“Given the current timeline, Apple would have the greater impetus to come to settlement simply because the ability to disrupt shipments is more immediate than the pressure faced by Proview and its potential delisting,” said Papageorgiou.
Deception allegations
Proview has accused Apple of creating a special purpose entity – IP Application Development, or IPAD – to buy the iPad name, concealing Apple’s true role in the matter.
In its filing, Proview alleged lawyers for IPAD repeatedly said it would not be competing with the Chinese firm, and refused to say why they needed the trademark.
Those representations were made “with the intent to defraud and induce the plaintiffs to enter into the agreement,” Proview said in the filing, requesting an unspecified amount of damages.
Apple reiterated its statement saying that it had bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in ten different countries several years ago. It also said that Proview had refused to honour their agreement and that a Hong Kong court had sided with the US technology giant in the matter.
The battle between a little-known Asian company and the world’s most valuable technology corporation dates back to a disagreement over precisely what was covered in a deal for the transfer of the iPad trademark to Apple in 2009.
Proview, which maintains it holds the iPad trademark in China, has been suing Apple in various jurisdictions in the country for trademark infringement, while also using the courts to get retailers in some smaller cities to stop selling the tablet PCs.
