Apple argues for China’s iPhone 6/Plus sales ban to be lifted
“Tech giant Apple argued in a Beijing court on Wednesday that its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus mobile designs do not copy a Chinese product and should be allowed to be sold on the Chinese mainland,” China Daily reports.
“On May 10, the Beijing Intellectual Property Office halted sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus because it was believed that the Apple mobile phone models infringed the design patent of a Chinese cell phone model called 100C, produced by Shenzhen Baili Marketing Service Co.,” China Daily reports. “Yang Anjin, attorney of the Shenzhen-based company, said that it applied for the ban after finding that the iPhone models too closely resemble the 100C. The company had been given a patent for the 100C in July 2014, two months before the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were issued in China, according to Yang.”
“The intellectual property office said at the time that the differences are too tiny to be noticed by average consumers, and ordered Apple and a reseller of its products in Beijing to stop selling the two models,” China Daily reports. “The court did not announce a verdict after hearing the case for almost eight hours on Wednesday.”
MacDailyNews Take: Take heart, for in some alternate universe China is sane.
Again, it’s either a shakedown or stupidity because there is no infringement. If Apple’s iPhone infringe on Baili’s, then virtually every smartphone introduced since the iPhone debuted in 2007 infringes on Apple’s design patents.
