Who Owns the iPad Trademark in China, and How Did They Get It?
The media coverage over the Apple-Proview iPad trademark dispute has intensified, along with the usual confusion over IP terminology. Just to set things straight, the owner of record of the mark is Proview, a Shenzhen company, and the mark was registered in 2001 through the usual process of trademark application. No trickery, no chicanery. Proview just got there first.
Here are a few examples of confusing statements:
1. Global Times:
Apple has been denied the rights to the trademark for the term “iPad” in China.
Confusing. Apple wasn’t denied anything. Someone else just filed the mark first. Happens all the time. Apple does not have any special rights to that name here unless it formally files for protection (there are exceptions, but those are not relevant in this case).
2. PC Magazine:
Proview claims the deal did not give Apple permission to use the name in mainland China. Proview further claims it still retains the rights to the iPad trademark there.
This case is not about permission to use (we in the biz call that a “license”) but about who owns the mark itself (the Shenzhen case is about whether Proview promised to assign it). Moreover, Proview is not “claiming” it has the rights, it does have those rights. It is the registered and legal owner of the mark in China.
3. Time:
A Chinese company that says it owns the rights to the iPad trademark has sued Apple and asked for a court order barring the company from the selling the device in China.
Again, the ownership is not a claim on behalf of Proview, it is the actual owner until the mark is legally assigned to Apple, if that ever happens. Title to a mark does not pass until it is formally assigned, and that process is handled by the Trademark Office. As to the contract dispute, Proview has already been victorious in Intermediate Court in Shenzhen, and things don’t look so good for Apple for the appeal.
Proview International Holdings says it registered the iPad name for use in Taiwan and China in 2000 and 2001, respectively.
No no no. Jeebus. This is not a “he said, she said.” Proview did register the mark and does own it according to the Trademark Office. This is a matter of record and not a difference of opinion.
I think most of these examples are just reporters covertly admitting that they haven’t checked any of these facts and are just repeating company statements or other reports. It would seem like all of these statements could be verified by checking relevant records, what the reporters have told us in reality is probably that they just didn’t bother to do so.
I think you’re right. The phrase “according to X” is the classic disclaimer. I use it myself all the time.
pull it from the stores, watch the dance
The drama would be sooooo entertaining, I must admit. It would also be fascinating to see what sort of knots foreigners would twist their logic into in order to blame it all on Proview and/or the government. Anything to exonerate Apple, their proxy deity.
I think the more pertinent question is who was handling global Apples IP in 2001?
Back then, just having an “i” at the start of a product name probably didn’t raise any red flags, and the iPad was years away. I doubt Apple could have won an opposition even if they tried.
The real fuck up was the contract with Proview (Taiwan). Amazingly bad lawyering, and I’ve heard that Baker McKenzie were involved at least in the assignment negotiations. Not sure who handled the drafting and DD with that deal, but . . . wow.