Hearing ends without ruling over iPad name_美文

Hearing ends without ruling over iPad name

A court in Guangdong province did not make a final ruling on a lengthy iPad trademark dispute between a Chinese company and tech giant Apple after a public hearing on Wednesday.

The latest hearing, held in Guangdong Provincial High People's Court, followed an initial ruling by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, which rejected a lawsuit in December by Apple and IP Application Development accusing Proview Technology of infringing on the iPad trademark.

The hearing on Wednesday focused on whether Proview Electronics, a Taiwan-based company, had the right to represent Shenzhen-based Proview Technology to sell the iPad trademark.

Xiao Caiyuan, the attorney for Shenzhen Proview, said Shenzhen Proview and Taiwan Proview are two independent companies and the contract signed between Taiwan Proview and Apple for the iPad trademark transfer on the mainland was invalid.

But attorneys for Apple said Taiwan Proview was linked with Shenzhen Proview and that Apple has the right to use the iPad trademark on the mainland.

Meanwhile, senior executives from Shenzhen Proview, including Yang Rongshan, Mai Shihong and Yuan Hui, have participated in the negotiations for the trademark transfer, representing Taiwan Proview, attorneys for Apple said during the hearing.