As you may probably already know certain resellers over in China are removing Apple iPad units from shelves due to a lawsuit against Apple by Proview over the trademark iPad, which apparently Proview owns in China. Well now it appears that Amazon China has also pulled the Apple iPad from sale.
According to the guys over at ZDnet, Amazon China has pulled the Apple iPad 2 from sale on their website due to Apple requesting them to remove resellers iPads as Amazon China isn’t an authorised seller, and apparently the claims by Proview have nothing to do with this action.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, a source claims that Apple and Amazon have both been working towards removing the iOS slate from the site “for weeks” and also says the move doesn’t pertain to any trademark infringement.
Apparently yesterday Chinese customs told Proview that their hope to get the Apple iPad banned from sale in China would be hard to impose due to the popularity of Apple devices in the country.
Proview say they have no knowledge of the Apple decision and have not requested the removal of the Apple iPad from Amazon China, which is based in Beijing.
Apple apparently released a statement concerning the Proview trademark infringement case yesterday to China’s People Daily that say Apple purchases Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in ten different countries some years ago, and Proview continues to refuse their agreement and that a Hong Kong court has new sided with Apple on this matter.
Thus it would appear at least for the time being anyone in China wanting to get hold of the Apple iPad might have a hard job doing so, but then there is always the Chinese grey market.
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