A court in Southern China has rejected a lawsuit, according to a newspaper in the region dated from Tuesday. The article, which first broke in English on Reuters, involves the trademarked "iPad" name, which is obviously owned by Apple. Thanks to Neowin"s own cralias for tipping us about this news!
The court in the town of Shenzhen could have made its decision based upon the Chinese province of Yunnan. It was in this province that, earlier this year, a chain of false Apple Stores selling fake goods were discovered. The video of this went viral and the shops were closed down after some time. Apple products are typically seen as highly desirable, meaning that counterfeiters regularly clone the design of these items. As a result of this, the company is virtually always engaged in some minor disputes with companies that are seen to be "ripping off" the design.
The Chinese court challenged this however, with the company that uses the iPad name, Proview Technologies, having lawfully registered the usage of the name in countries including China. The importance of maintaining the name as an Apple hallmark is high, since the California-based company is attempting to make more of a dent in the market, opening more Apple Stores in time.
Proview has taken legal action against Apple, demanding ten billion Yuan (roughly $1.5 billion USD) over copyright infringement. While it is highly unlikely that, even if the company wins this case they will be able to receive the full price, it is still quite interesting to see a small company fighting its case against a giant as large as Apple.