Kyle
While the interwebs are running amuck right now with people chastising Apple and their injunction against Samsung, Apple has just just paid China’s Proview Technology $60 million in a patent suit they lost.
The suit wasn’t actually about technology, but rather the name iPad which Proview had registered in China back in 2001. Prior to the iPad launch Apple had negotiated a deal with Proview to acquire the rights to the name iPad in several other countries for a measly $50,000.
For one reason or another, Apple didn’t get the rights for the name iPad in mainland China and that’s what this particular lawsuit was about.
The Associated Press is reporting that Proview held onto the name in China and had actually sought close to $400 million in damages originally. It’s believed that Proview acted swiftly to get this lawsuit settled because they are having other financial difficulties that the $60 million dollar cash infusion may not even solve.
According to AP Apple has already transferred the $60 million dollars to the court in China for disbursement.
China is Apple’s second largest market. It’s also where the iPads are actually made. Apple had received approval from China to sell “The New iPad” back in May but hasn’t said anything about a launch date yet. Some analysts believe that Apple was awaiting settlement in this particular case to launch the “New” iPad in China, to prevent any snafu’s.
This isn’t Apple’s first problem with naming. Apparently Cisco had actually held the trademark to the word “iPhone” prior to the 2007 launch of the device that changed the world. Cisco used the name “iPhone” for a line of network connected phones that the company has since stopped producing.
The name iPhone was transferred to Apple prior to the release for an undisclosed sum.
Source: AP
Nick Tippmann
