A senior official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has said that Proview is the rightful owner of the iPad trademark, according to a Reuters report.
"According to the ... provisions of the China Trademark Law, currently Shenzhen Proview is the legal registrant of the iPad trademark," Fu Shuangjian, a deputy director of SAIC, was quoted as saying at a news conference in Beijing.
This is a very bad sign for Apple as it signals how the government might rule. Proview has accused Apple of fraud and unfair competition in how it purchased the trademark.
"This case has a huge impact and the final court ruling would directly influence who owns the iPad trademark. The commerce department will (take the matter) very seriously," said Fu, whose department governs market regulation and supervision.
Proview says its still negotiating with Apple but no settlement has been reached.
It's not about cheap (slave) labour. Apple products use rare earth materials to manufacture. China controls 95% of these rare earth materials. So you can get cheap labour else where but you won't get the materials to build your device. China has export restrictions on these rare earth materials.
That's the reason the iPad 3 was officially named "The New iPad" (on a temporary label on the box that can easily be yanked). I suspect Apple would be more likely to pull the iPad from the Chinese market than it would be to change the name of it's biggest seller across the rest of the world. The jobs will stay, but the product might not. It's unfortunate that Provue had previously claimed the name, but they really don't have much of a financial leg to stand on, and this battle over their name is their ownly hope to remaining financially solvent (they're hoping a huge settlement will allow them to revise their business).
What would you do? Pull the product from sale because your upset you can't call it iPad. Or rename the product and still sell billions and make loads of money? No brainier really.
They (Chinese officials) should give Apple the iPad name as a thank you for providing jobs to thousands upon thousands of migrant workers.
Without Apple, these people would still be in the rural areas toiling away on marginal farmlands and earning little money