China court: Apple pays $60M to settle iPad case

Apple has paid $60 million to settle a dispute in China over ownership of the iPad name, a court announced this morning, removing a potential obstacle to sales of the popular tablet computer in the potentially lucrative Chinese market. Apple’s dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology highlighted the possible pitfalls for global companies in China’s infant trademark system. It also posed a challenge for the communist government, which wants to attract technology investors to develop China’s economy. Apple says it bought the global rights to the iPad name from Proview in 2009, but Chinese authorities say the rights in China were never transferred. A Chinese court ruled in December that Proview still owned the name in China. Proview, which is struggling financially, asked Chinese authorities to seize iPads in an apparent effort to pressure Apple to settle. “The iPad dispute resolution is ended,” the Guangdong High People’s Court says in a statement. “Apple Inc. has transferred $60 million to the account of the Guangdong High Court as requested in the mediation letter.” The settlement should be good news for both Apple and its customers because it clears a potential obstacle for the company to start selling the new iPad 3 in China. Read the full story here.