The iPad, as seen by Proview in 1998

Posted February 19, 2012 by Istvan in Mobile

The legal battle over the iPad trademark in China has escalated to new level. Today the bankrupt Proview held a press conference in Beijing in order to present its side of the truth over the iPad trademark.

As indicated during the press conference, the iPad was part of Proview’s iFamily series, which included the iNote, iPDA, iDVD and iClient. However, the iPad looked somewhat different at the time of its launch in 1998. As you can see from the picture above, it is an all-in-one computer, and its name stands for Internet Personal Access Device. It features a 15-inch 800 x 600 pixel CRT monitor, a processor running at 265 MHz, and was shipped with 32 MB of DRAM, a 16 GB DOM flash card for storage purposes, two USB ports, two RJ-11 jacks, an ethernet port, headphone and microphone ports, two PS/2/keyboard/mouse connectors and a parallel port for connecting printers.

While the presentation aimed to prove that Proview’s iPad really exits, the bankrupt company has been focusing on accusing Apple of fraud.

From Proview’s point of view, Apple has never acquired the trademark. As we previously reported, Apple paid a certain amount of money to an IP Application Development company from the United Kingdom, to become the owner of the trademark.

Proview was eager to underline that Apple only bought the right to use the iPad name in certain countries, and China was not on the list.

However, after the financial crisis hit, Proview faced financial woes and in December 2009, Yang-Rong-Moutain-authorized employees signed an agreement with the UK IP company to transfer the rights to the trademark.

According to the iPad trademark transfer agreement signed by both parties, China is mentioned in the Annex. This is the basis of the legal fight between Apple and Proview.

Additional documents obtained by AllThingD include email from a representative of Proview Technology — not the other affiliate — to Apple’s representative regarding the deal, as well as a copy of the agreement itself.