After having some success in China, Proview Technology has now filed a lawsuit against Apple over the iPad trademark dispute in the U.S on the grounds that Apple deceived them when it bought the iPad trademark from them.
Reuters reports:
Proview accuses Apple of creating a special purpose entity -- IP Application Development Ltd, or IPAD -- to buy the iPad name from it, concealing Apple's 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 dated February 17, requesting an unspecified amount of damages.
As MacRumors points out it is a common business practise followed by companies to set up such dummy corporations to acquire intellectual property and other assets in support of products under development.
By keeping their identities secret, high-profile companies hope to avoid having their plans become public while also looking to strike more favorable deals with companies who think they are dealing with a small business rather than a deep-pocketed industry leader.
Proview claims that it was the first to use the iPad moniker in China for its computer, which looks similar to the first generation iMac. Proview's IPAD stood for “Internet Personal Access Device”.
Apple insists that it holds the trademark rights to the "iPad" name in China. "We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter," said Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu.
Proview's Chinese subsidiary claims that Proview's parent company did not own the rights to sell the iPad name to Apple.
It's strange that Proview has now decided to sue Apple for deception as it indirectly confirms that it did indeed sell the iPad trademark to Apple.
No comments:
Post a Comment