More China IP Communications Stories

Chinese authorities have seized more of Apple’s (News - Alert) iPads due to a trademark claim amde by a small company, the Associated Press reports.

Shenzen Proview Technology has said that it will ask Chinese customs officials to stop imports and exports of the popular device. The move might affect the availability of the iPad worldwide, since it and many other Apple products are manufactured there.

iPads were seized in the cities of Zhengzhou and Qingdao. This comes after earlier reports of seizures of iPads in the country.

Proview claims they’ve had the right to the name “iPad” in the country since 2001. Proview is suing the Cupertino, Calif.-based company for $1.6 million dollars.

Members of the Chinese media have said that Proview is desperate for a large settlement because the company is deeply in debt and facing bankruptcy.

"We've appealed to Apple through its agents to have a settlement, but so far we haven't received any response from them," Xie Xianghui, a lawyer for Proview, said.

"One of our local offices seized iPads from a shop and sealed them off based on the Chinese Trademark Law, although we did not carry out a city-wide seizure," an employee for the administration of Zhengzhou who was only identified by his surname, Jiang, said.

A spokesman for Qingdao's Administration of Industry and Commerce, only giving his surname, He, said there was no order to seize iPads yet but that the city would move quickly if there was.

Although Proview registered the trademark “iPad” in 2001, Apple says the bought the name from a Taiwanese company associated with Proview.

Proview, however, says it owns the name on the mainland. A Chinese court rejected Apple’s claim to the name, but the company is still appealing.

This is not the only controversy the company is facing in China. Apple is also dealing with reports of unsafe working conditions at Foxconn, one of Apple’s suppliers in the country, where the company and many other technology firms have manufacturing operations.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Tecnology Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “I would want everyone to know is that Apple takes working conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time. Whether workers are in Europe or Asia or the United States, we care about every worker.”