iPads seized from shelves by Chinese officials Officials have begun confiscating iPad devices from stores in China after a court ruled in December that Apple was guilty of infringing the trademark of Chinese monitor biz Proview. According to Hebei Youth Daily, officials from the Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AIC) raided a reseller in Shijiazhuang, clearing it …
Check these out:
http://www.carnewschina.com/page/7/
http://www.motorindustry.org/2011/12/15/chery-qq-vs-chevy-spark-copy-theft-the-true-story/
In the case of VW, I thought Chery made cars from unauthorized build parts but that instead of suing, VW showcased how good their quality is and that since Chery (or whomever) cloned it, it showed that VW had quality, and Chery was a quality company...
Car or no, fake iPads or no, Apple lost the case due to using a registered trademark "iPad" for selling its tablets. The fakes are still out there because they do not use "iPad" in the name, they just look the same. Just like that handbag that has a slight misspelling of a certain brand name....
The Chinese company wasn't selling fake X5's they were selling a car that looked almost identical, but it was cheaper....
I would suspect BMW probably used the court case to improve sales, believe me, no one in China would buy the Chinese brand because it looks like the BMW, IF they can afford the BMW, so BMW loose no sales, so why complain unless they call it the same thing...
Only those destined for the Chinese internal market. Anything sold in other countries would be subject to cases in each country in question.
Of course, in China anything could happen, given that their legal system is very different. But I think that many companies would re-consider using China as a manufacturing base if the Chinese authorities were to start confiscating goods destined for sale outside of China.
£Only those destined for the Chinese internal market. Anything sold in other countries would be subject to cases in each country in question.£
apparently it's not the case you presume if new reports are accurate, it appears Lance 3 prediction/suggestion may well happen now if cash isn't spent settling before trial ( is that an option in china's legal system ?)
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/1308659
"If they want to get the attention of Apple, forget a court order for them to stop sellign them in China, go for the jugular and prevent them from being exported. "
see http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/14/us-apple-ipad-idUKTRE81D0OE20120214
Apple may face iPad export ban in China trademark dispute
By Artemisia Ng and Melanie Lee
HONG KONG/SHANGHAI | Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:45pm GMT
"The Chinese firm Proview Technology (Shenzhen) Co Ltd is petitioning Chinese customs to stop shipments of Apple's popular
iPads in and out of China, though the customs have not responded to its request, lawyer Xie Xianghui told Asian Legal Business, a Thomson Reuters publication."
If Apple loose the appeal does that mean that within Chinas border the word ipad can only be used by Proview ?
How would that affect all those ipads being made there, would they have to leave the word ipad off them to be able to export ?
Could be interesting if they loose the appeal....
I just watched the previous week's TopGear where they went to China and were looking at all the car fakes. And how BMW had tried to sue over the fake X5 (or whatever it was) that looked identical to their model, and they lost the case because the Chinese courts ruled that there were no similarities at all.
I'll admit, Apple can be a bit over zealous, but it seems crazy over there, you haven't got a chance of winning unless you're a Chinese company.
iPhone (Fujitsu?) and iOS (Cisco), if I remembered those right.
So they'd better get their wallet out for iPad and pony up to ProView, too. As they've infringed already I'd hope it ends up being $5 per device sold instead of a flat rate. Make an example of the Western Capitalist, etc, etc. Not like they're gonna move manufacture from Foxconn overnight.
Perhaps they should have gone with a less stupid naming convention from the outset than i+some word from a dictionary.
Or so they were led to believe by ProView's Taiwanese subsidiary at the time.
ProView (China) is claiming that ProView (Taiwan) did NOT have the rights to sell the "iPad" trademark, despite ProView (Taiwan)'s claims to the contrary during the original sale. That would suggest ProView (Taiwan) sold IP rights when it wasn't the legitimate rights holder. Either way, ProView (China or Taiwan) is at fault here as, presumably, someone in the corporation's Chinese mothership was aware of their Taiwanese arm's activities.
THAT is what this case is all about: ProView have been acting in bad faith. If Apple's allegations are correct, then ProView are guilty of "trademark trolling".
If Apple does lose this case, it's going to make doing business in China more expensive as more arse-covering layers will be required when dealing with IP issues. (I.e. if US Corporation A tries to buy Chinese Corporation C's IP, a whole layer of legal middle-men in both nations will have to be hired to perform the necessary checks, all of whom will also require expensive liability insurance as Corporation A is damned well going to sue somebody if it turns out they've been sold a pup.)
I think it might be because from the mainland viewpoint (and technically, from every other country's), there's no such thing as the ROC. There is only one China, the PRC, which happens to have a rebel province in Taiwan.
So any legal decision In Taipei might have some difficulty to be applied in Beijing if they feel like ignoring it.
Handling relations between mainland China and Taiwan must be a lot of fun now that they have so much economic interconnect.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/07/ipo_captures_govt/
China is learning quickly that IP is sometimes good for stimulating worthwhile economic activity - but it's great for useless rent seeking. We can expect more of this rubbish in the future.
Surely a police state can organise a proper universal seizure of iPads, if that's what they wanted to do? So if they haven't, and what we've got is isolated cases of local authorities 'confiscating' iPads from shops, then corruption seems more likely.
Local police chief notes wife's birthday is due. Thinks what would make his darling a happy bunny? Sadly considers his bank balance, in comparison to the cost of an iPad. Has bright idea... Seizes iPads. Result.
As I understand it the Chinese central government doesn't have a lot of success in controlling local government - which is a source of a lot of the corruption, that's making the Party so unpopular.
Stealing a few million from the defence budget, when the government is rolling in money, isn't obvious. Illegally bulldozing a bunch of people's houses (without compensation) to build private villas for the mayor and his cronies - that sort of thing gets attention.
Unfortunately that is too true, they even execute corrupt officials in an attempt to control the corruption... The problem is local government in China is causing bad press for the whole Chinese government, meaning the rest of the world doesn't realize the people in charge are well educated, and have served their time before getting up the ladder into power positions, so they know what their doing (or should do) it may be a system that is hard to push through change, but it works..
"time to move production to... → #
a more friendly country like North Korea?"
Nigel R, i take it thats tongue in cheek but you do know there are already industrial parks on the boarders of North Korea don't you ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region
OC the west wont let any high tech goods to be made/assembled there as they don't want the NC's to get the expertise or the manufacturing kit to make it easy.
and OC all the people here saying move assembly to "cheaper labour" country are forgetting that its by FAR the cheapest place right where it is, right now.... cha ching .
so far more initial and ongoing costs involved even if their could find somewhere else in the world that has anything like the massive infrastructural of china with masses of "cheaper labour" to buy up.
Of course, that would mean out-bribing their competitors there (which they certainly can do) but I believe this would infringe the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which doesn't have an exception for doing business in China (and really only serves to make US companies less competitive in many environments).
So based on the premises provided of China not recognising Taiwan as a self-determining sovereign nation which can't be invaded. The Falkland islands which Argentina has never recognised as being self-determining and under the sovereignty of the UK, can simply "not-invaded" by some relocating troops from the Argentine Mainland?
When the Chinese government fled to Taiwan, after being booted out by the communists in 1947-48, they didn't accept that they were no longer the government of China. They were just suffering a temporary inconvenience, and would be back in charge of the whole country forthwith.
Meanwhile the Communists felt they now ruled the whole of China, and quietly ignored the fact that they didn't control this big island.
At the UN, Taiwan (as the Republic of China) was on the Security Council with veto, as one of the victorious powers of WWII. And the PRC didn't have representation, or recognition.
In the 70s that got reversed. Nixon went to China, they were brought into the international system, they got the seat in the UN, and the diplomatic recognition.
We now have the weird situation that the US is pledged to defend a country that I don't believe even they recognise diplomatically. Taiwan pays small countries to officially recognise it, rather than China, I'm not sure even they see themselves as a separate legal country. I'm no international lawyer, so I find this all a bit confuddling. But when a candidate for the Taiwanese Presidency announced that he'd consider a referendum on independence - China threatened invasion if he did. It caused lots of tension and sabre rattling. But what I take from that is that the current legal status is that they both claim to be the real China, it's just neither government quite controls the whole territory.
This is the kind of weird situation that makes it advisable to employ professional diplomats, lest your head explode, or you start a war by mistake...
For "payback is a bitch!".
Maybe Apple really does have valid use of the brand "iPad" from their agreement with Proview Taiwan, but if this case is ultimately decided against them, I for one will not be overly sad to see the litigious get litigated in return.
... a little payback for the 'special treatment' Chinese companies get in the US.,
Franky, I don't see any real issues here. A valid trademark has apparently been used without permission. Bit like those rounded corners.
Not saying the PRC has a perfect legal system... Detention without trial, torture, abuse and murder happen from time to time. Reminds me of British jurisprudence, really.
"cannot wrap brain around this concept."
what's hard about it ?, it's simple... someone in china Owns the legal ipad trademark there , and they make and sell products under that ipad name.....
now apple US want to sell their "counterfeit iPAD brand" (because as of right now that is exactly what it is) in to the same massively growing Chinese markets opening up now after failing to do do proper buyer be ware diligence in a sellers market.
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