iPad in battle with Bank of China

Apple's legal fight for the iPad name in China doesn't just pit the world's most-valuable company against a failed Hong Kong display maker. Some of the nation's biggest banks also are opposing the technology giant. Apple is appealing a Chinese court ruling that the trademark belongs to a mainland unit of Proview International Holdings. At the time Apple says it bought those rights, the Shenzhen subsidiary was controlled by creditors including Bank of China and China Minsheng Banking, according to Proview founder Rowell Yang. Losing its appeal would open Apple to lawsuits seeking damages and enable a nationwide ban on iPad sales in the Cupertino, California-based company's biggest market outside the US. The dispute revolves on whether Proview's Taiwan unit, to which Apple paid £35,000 (Dh201,912) to use the iPad name in China, had the right to sell it or whether that rested with the Shenzhen unit and its creditors. Right now, the most valuable asset of Proview Group is the iPad trademark registration in China," said Eugene Low, a trademark lawyer at Mayer Brown JSM in Hong Kong. "Assuming the creditors have control of the affairs of Proview Shenzhen, it might be in their best interest to get a settlement as quickly as possible to monetize the Proview assets." After Proview Technology (Shenzhen) Co defaulted on loans, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in March 2009 appointed Bank of China and Minsheng to lead a reorganisation of the company, Yang, who remains chairman of the unit, said on Tuesday. "We can't make any agreements without the creditors," Yang said. "We are under the monitoring and control of the court." Chinese court documents are not publicly available to verify the claim. ‘Not true' No one in Shenzhen, a city neighbouring Hong Kong, knew the Taiwan unit signed away the China trademarks, Yang said. Apple says that's not true. Proview "refuses to honour their agreement with Apple in China," said Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman. She declined to comment further, as the case is pending before the courts. Proview's wholly owned Shenzhen subsidiary obtained the iPad trademark in China in 2001, according to a February 3, 2010, regulatory filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. The mark was obtained for a desktop terminal with touch- screen display called the Internet Personal Access Device, or iPad, that the company developed starting in 1998, Yang said. Apple sued Proview's Shenzhen-based unit in 2010, claiming ownership of the iPad trademark in China on the basis of the December 2009 contract that the US company says gave it global rights to the name, including in China. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court rejected Apple's claims on November 17. "If the plaintiff wants to buy trademarks from the defendant, it should do so according to China's laws and regulations by signing contracts with the defendant," the judgment said. The court said the purchase agreement was signed in the name of Proview's Taipei-based subsidiary, Proview Electronics, which failed to demonstrate that the transfer was approved by the Shenzhen unit that owned the mark. Apple appealed to the Higher People's Court of Guangdong, said Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer representing Proview at Grandall Law Firm in Beijing. Hearings begin February 29. Proview "hasn't yet decided the final claim amount" it will seek from Apple, the company's lawyer, Roger Xie, said last week.