iPad name change in China?
December 9, 2011
Apple may have to change the name of its iPad in China, after discovering that a mistake by its lawyers means it does not own the rights to the trademark.
The company is facing a £1 billion court case for trademark infringement and a possible ban on selling iPads in two Chinese cities.
The “IPAD” name had already been registered in 2000 by Proview, a struggling computer monitor manufacturer which flirted with the idea of selling its own tablet computers.
The iPad is wildly popular in China and Apple sold more than a million of the devices between April and June, holding almost three-quarters of the market, according to Analysys International, a Chinese research company.