Apple has paid USD 60 million to settle a two-year-old legal dispute with Proview International over the iPad trademark in China. The terms of the settlement agreement were reached on 25 June, and Apple has transferred the funds as agreed, the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province announced in a statement reported by Bloomberg. Proview had applied to Chinese customs to block shipments of Apple's iPad tablets in and out of China, and asked local retailers to stop sales of the product. The dispute had centered on whether Proview's Taiwan unit, which Apple paid GBP 35,000 in 2009 to use the iPad name in mainland China, had the right to sell it or whether that rested with Proview's Shenzhen unit, which held the mark. Apple sued Proview Shenzhen in 2010 claiming ownership of the iPad trademark in China and lost. Its appeal of that case was heard in February, and the two sides then held court-sponsored mediation. Proview obtained the iPad trademark in China in 2001, for a desktop terminal with touch-screen display called the Internet Personal Access Device, or IPAD.
