The dispute between Apple and Proview over iPad trademark rights is to some extent the result of Apple’s consistent lack of attention to the Chinese market

Gao Fei

Trademark rights The ownership of is an obvious legal issue. However, in the iPad trademark dispute between Proview and Apple, from the beginning, many public opinions did not start from a legal perspective. The industry generally takes business issues and ethical issues as the starting point of the topic. So in the end, whether Proview really owned the trademark reasonably and legally, and whether Apple was within the bounds of infringement, became secondary issues that were not cared about.

Morality cannot replace law

Apple’s public opinion advantage comes from the unanimous recognition of its innovative power in the country.

This thinking has reached a high point since the death of Steve Jobs. Apple-style innovation and Chinese-style copycats form a sharp contrast. Although Proview has the initiative in trademarks, it has no products behind it, which is in sharp contrast to Apple's innovation.

So, a legal issue first turned into a business issue, and finally turned into a moral issue. According to the moralists' point of view, Proview has been declared a shameless bastard in the moral court, a so-called typical empty-handed white wolf, who deserves to be beaten by everyone, and the final trial has been made without any appeal.

But if the incident is switched to another similar scene that year, the ending of the story will be very different.

In 2005, Google (Weibo) had just entered China and encountered similar problems. At that time, Google did not control the important domain name google.com.cn, which had already been registered by domestic companies. Although morally speaking, it is unlikely that domestic companies would think of the term google before Google, but without the support of relevant laws, Google finally spent a huge sum of money to switch back to the use of the .cn domain name. In that year, neither the behavior of domestic squatters nor Google's redemption behavior caused any commercial or moral controversy. Public opinion lamented more that domain name squatting is really profitable.

A few years later, the protagonist of the incident has changed from Apple to Google. Today, the public opinion response has been turned upside down. The author can only think that the Apple brand is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in China, and a legal issue is mixed with too many emotional factors.

For this reason, we need to return what is moral to morality and what is legal to law. In fact, what Proview did was just a reasonable choice within the legal framework. A company on the verge of bankruptcy has no reason not to use its last bit of assets to obtain maximum cash. After all, there is a row of creditors standing behind it.

Apple’s mistake

The essence of this trademark dispute stems entirely from Apple’s own mistakes.

Apple is a company that attaches great importance to intellectual property rights, whether it is the confidentiality of prototypes or the handling of patents and trademarks? The trademark of Apple’s core product iPhone was not in the hands of Apple before, but belonged to Cisco All in all, it should be said that the transfer of this trademark was more difficult and costly, but in the end Apple successfully obtained the trademark authorization.

It can be inferred from Apple's consistent performance in the United States that if Apple really pays attention to the iPad's trademark issue in China, Apple has a hundred reasons to solve this problem. But on the contrary, when signing the trademark transfer contract with Proview of Taiwan, Apple did not fully and carefully confirm whether the trademark transfer included the use of the iPad trademark in mainland China. Behind this problem, it directly reflects Apple's consistent attitude of not paying attention to the Chinese market, which is slow and slow.

In fact, it is common knowledge in the industry that Apple does not pay attention to the Chinese market. From the late Steve Jobs who never visited China to the fact that none of Apple’s star products have China as the first market? Not even the second or third one. This all shows that although China has the most hungry consumers for Apple products in the world, China's most important value to Apple is the quality and production capacity guarantee of Foxconn's madeinChina, rather than the major market opportunities of madeforChina.

Considering that except for Foxconn OEM, Apple has invested so little in the Chinese market, it is no exaggeration to say that the Chinese market is driving Apple’s development in China. Rather than Apple promoting its development in the Chinese market.

In Apple's just-conducted earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2012, Cook, who succeeded Steve Jobs, said that the demand for iPhone 4S in the Chinese market far exceeded expectations. The subtext was quite clear, that is, we really don't pay that much attention to this. market?.

From this point of view, the ownership of trademark rights is actually a minor issue for Apple. More importantly, in the face of such a huge and hungry Chinese market, what attitude should Apple take to reposition itself.

Perhaps, it is too difficult for a company like Apple to be made for China. However, Cook should realize that China is not just a factory, but a thriving market. For the next i-series product, whether it is iTv, iCar, or iHouse, I believe Apple will copy the legal standards of its headquarters to the global market, especially China.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of CBS ZDNet Chinese version)