December 4, 2008

Apple wins trademark battle in China

A Chinese gadget company has felt the full force of Apple, Inc over the use of an apple in their logo. This has come about because Apple actually trades in China and sooner or later, they were bound to cross paths.

The New Apple Concept Digital Technology Co Ltd was found to use a logo, which could be mistakenly seen as the Apple, Inc logo, which was registered, as a trademark in China in 1993, which was when they first started doing business over there.

The Chinese firm were found guilty of using the logo by the people’s court and ordered to pay around $58,000 in damages.

This is a bit of a turnaround by the authorities in China as normally you would have thought that things like this would have been brushed aside, but ever since the Olympics and the problems that the Chinese encountered over trademarks, there seems to have been a change of direction for the good.

Source [Ars Technica]