“There’s tension brewing between the U.S. and China over ‘trademark squatting,’ the practice of grabbing trademarks under China’s rules that allow whoever registers them first to own them,” Oliver Herzfeld reports for Forbes.
“But the most high profile trademark dispute in China, Apple’s fight over the iPad trademark, is something entirely different,” Herzfeld reports. “Essentially, it is a commercial dispute triggered by Apple’s regrettable failure to properly purchase the rights to that trademark in China.”
Herzfeld reports, “Apple was simply not duly diligent in its most basic obligation as a purchaser, investigating and verifying the seller’s ownership before entering into a purchase agreement. A quick and inexpensive trademark search would have revealed that Apple was contracting with the wrong party… While Apple shouldn’t have to look far to find the cash needed to purchase the iPad trademarks in China, the question remains: How high will Proview’s asking price be?”
Read more in the full article here.