In these days, the tablet market is going to be hotter and its hotness has grown by recent twist between Apple and Amazon over an ongoing legal battle for the iPad tablet.
Apple Inc. asked Amazon.com to remove resellers’ iPad 2 tablet computers for sale in its Chinese website. According to people familiar with the matter, the request was made because the site is not an authorized reseller to sell the device.
A trademark dispute between the Cupertino, California consumer-electronics giant and a Shenzhen, China-based subsidiary of Proview International Holdings Ltd has been starting for two years ago.
As local Chinese officials have been confiscating iPads from retailers in some parts of China, Amazon pulled resellers’ iPads from sale as a result of a trademark dispute.
But as source report, the request of Apple is not related to an ongoing trademark suit, the action comes as the company’s legal battle.
In Aug. 2010 Proview’s chairman filed for bankruptcy, it was suspended from trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange. And court said, Proview, after bought the iPad name sometime before 2009, later struck a deal to sell Apple the rights to the iPad name.
But later, a local Chinese court dismissed Apple’s claims in different lawsuits, lacking legal proof. Apple claimed that it owned the trademark for the “iPad” in China by signing agreements with Proview.
The High Court of the Hong Kong saying, Apple is allowed to use the name “iPad” that was still valid under an earlier agreement between the two companies.
Proview had breached an earlier agreement to transfer the iPad name to Apple.
As per court decision, Proview along with one other company had combined together with the common intention of injuring Apple, calling the event a conspiracy. It tried to grape the situation as a business opportunity by asking for money to pay U.S. $10 million for the China trademark from Apple.
Meanwhile, the two companies had been working to remove the iPads for weeks over legal dispute on trademark.
Apple has argued that it purchased the rights to the iPad name in 2009, while Proview has argued those rights did not include China. Now the twisted fact is enhancing the controversy between two.
Amazon has since removed iPads offered by other resellers on its Chinese website as well. Apple continues to sell the iPad through its authorized channels.
