CRI听力:Proview or Apple, Who Will be the Winner in the iPad Trademark War?

The 78-year old founder of Proview International, Yang Rongshan, announced bankruptcy in August 2010. On Friday, Yang attended a press conference held by Proview in order to comment upon the ongoing case regarding the infringement of the iPad trademark. His statement came following mounting speculation over whether the Shenzhen-based Proview Company would demand compensation from the U.S. technology giant Apple. Proview registered the iPad trademark prior to Apple ever manufacturing their version of the iPad.

Mei Xinyu, a researcher at China's Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, says even though Proview intends to save itself from bankruptcy by requesting a huge amount of compensation from Apple, the company should not be criticized or blamed.

"Today, the most valuable asset of Proview is its ownership of the iPad trademark. Apple has previously used the same approach to save itself from the brink of bankruptcy. So, I think there's nothing wrong with the way the Shenzhen-based Proview Company is behaving."

In December of last year, Proview-Shenzhen won a court case against Apple in Shenzhen, which ruled that Apple's use of the term iPad infringed upon Proview's trademark. Proview's use of the term iPad comes from an acronym for the Internet Personal Access Device, a product that Proview began developing in 1998.

Proview Technology-Shenzhen is a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Proview International Holdings, which also has a branch in Taiwan.

Apple claims to have bought the rights to use the iPad trademark from Proview Taipei in February 2010 via a UK company. However, Proview Shenzhen claims it still reserves the right to use the trademark on the Chinese mainland.
In an earlier statement published on February 14, Apple said that they had gained support from the local Hong Kong court.

Intellectual Property Law expert, Doctor Li Yahong, with the University of Hong Kong, said she thinks the Hong Kong court ruling was made on the basis of emails between the UK Company and the Taiwan branch of Proview.

"I read their e-mails published on the news website. In an e-mail from Proview Taiwan, the company mentions that they pledged to sign a mainland iPad trademark transfer agreement after Apple gave them the sum they agreed upon. If this Taiwan Company didn't own the iPad trademark on the mainland, where did their eligibility come from to sign such an agreement?"

Trademark officials in various Chinese cities started removing iPads from store shelves after assuming that these iPads infringed upon Proview-Shenzhen's trademark. Li Yahong predicts that the Apple-Proview trademark battle will have a negative impact upon the potential marketing of Apple's third version of the iPad, which is expected to hit the market in the near future.

For CRI, I'm Xu Fei