It looks like Apple and ProView have finally come to an agreement over the rights to the iPad Trademark. As most of you might remember Apple used a shell company to purchase the rights to the iPad trademark, but ran afoul of the fact that the company they thought they were buying everything from did not own all of the rights. It also turns out that the shell company Intellectual Property Application Development Limited (IPAD get it) also claimed they would not make any products that competed with ProView’s own Internet Personal Access Device. Things got very ugly very quickly and the result was a very long court battle with Apple and ProView each claiming they were in the right.Now Apple has agreed to settle with ProView and pay the sum of $60 Million to ProView for the rights to the iPad name and trade mark in China. This is a victory of sorts for Proview as they are still seriously in debt even with the $60 Million. Some of the banks that are holding ProView debt have been putting pressure on the company to settle and being to pay back what they owe (which is somewhere around $180 Million).
For Apple it is a win as they can now begin to sell the “New” iPad in China. This is something that they have been holding up doing in order to avoid any potential issues. We suspect that Apple might have talked with some of the banks that are now in control of ProView’s assets and that combined with pressure from the Chinese government might have force ProView to see the sense in taking the settlement instead of continuing to ask for the $1.6 billion they wanted (along with an apology).
No matter the real reason behind the quick (relatively) settlement, ProView as a company will probably not be around for much longer. We expect their creditors to come calling shortly after Apple sends the money and that will be about that. 33% of the face value of the debt is probably something that the banks involved can live with. From there they will most likely divide up and sell off the rest of the company. At least that is how it works over here in the US.
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