iPad 3 release date threatened by “troubled” China trademark hawker

by Bill Palmer

The iPad 3 should see its release date in the United States and elsewhere in March of 2012 as expected. But China may be a different story, as a financially troubled Chinese company which makes monitors claims it owns the rights to the name “iPad” and is suing Apple for more than a billion and a half dollars while attempting to block the launch of the iPad 3 in China. Proview Technology, the company in question, says it registered the “iPad” trademark in China a decade ago, long before Apple’s iPad was unveiled. The company admits it’s in financial “trouble” according to Fox Business, and that it’s relying on a successful verdict against Apple to right itself from a cash standpoint. The company can’t realistically stop the iPad 3 from launching worldwide, but it’ll be up to the Chinese legal system to sort out the mess locally. In the mean time Apple appears to be eyeing March as the release date for the iPad 3 in the west, just as it’s launched the previous two iPad models in the spring…

The financial reality of the China situation is that Apple, which is the world’s largest tech company and has about a hundred billion dollars in cash on hand, could buy Proview for comparative pocket change just to make the whole thing go away – or give the company the cash settlement it wants in exchange for a clear legal grip on the iPad trademark. The situation has come to a head even as Apple is attempting to use the court system to get rival Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, an obvious copycat of the original iPad from a hardware design standpoint, removed from shelves worldwide. The current iPad 2 looks identical to the original iPad from the front, but features curved sides and a thinner profile. Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 is still a mystery. While various internal specs have been quasi-confirmed or speculated on, no clear indicator of the external design of the iPad 3 has arisen from the rumor pile as of yet…

The lack of iPad 3 leaks is remarkable considering the significant amount of digging done in advance by rumor sites any time a major new Apple product is in play. The iPad 3 is expected to launch at a press event sometime in March, with a release date shortly thereafter. Those in the United States and other nations not affected by the Proview legal tussle should have no problem getting their hands on one, so long as Apple manages to manufacture enough initial inventory; last year’s iPad 2 launch was marred by a lack of initial supply. For those in China, or any other nation which the trademark battle spills over into, it may be a different story. Here’s more on the iPad 3.