Chinese Apple Counterfeits Stores Popping Up

Local officials from Kunming, the capitol city of the province of Yunnan, China, have begun to crack down on the much-publicized “fake” apple stores that came to light last week. Two of the five stores have been shut down by the local industry and commerce administration. According to China Daily’s U.S. edition, the remaining 3 stores are awaiting a response from Apple as to whether or not they may continue operating.  Apparently, so far the products sold in the store have not been alleged to be counterfeit products.  But the store itself is unauthorized, thus selling gray marketing goods.


This is interesting news since foreign businesses have been skeptical about China’s responsibility to intellectual property. Patent trolls, knockoff brands, and gray markets have hurt China’s IP reputation. But this response from the local government could be a sign things are headed in the right direction. Granted, the news comes from China Daily, and Chinese news sources aren’t known for objective reporting. But the fact that certain of the stores have been closed down means that China didn’t simply turn a blind eye to the situation, as it has done in the past. Perhaps this was due to the extensive news coverage of the fake Apple stores, whose own employees didn’t even know they weren’t working for Apple.

However, it also appears that the reason the two stores were closed was the lack of a proper business license, not because of their intellectual property infringements. The remaining three stores (that have a business license) are awaiting a response from Apple.
Currently Apple only has four authorized stores, in Beijing and Shanghai. Maybe Apple should be expanding its Chinese market more quickly.

Apple's Ipad Runs Into Fujitsu's Trademark Application

With all the buzz last week over Apple’s new iPad, a significant detail may have been overlooked. Apparently, Fujitsu has been manufacturing and selling their own Fujitsu “iPad” for more than 8 years. The Fujitsu device isn’t an Apple knockoff, but rather a different kind of pad, a Windows point-of-sale tool for retailers. But it’s also called the iPad, and Fujitsu actually applied for a trademark in 2003. Initially Fujitsu's application was abandoned in view of an existing application for "ipad" from a company called Mag-Tek! The original iPad, it seems, was a kind of pin-entry pad made by a company called Mag-Tek. Ok, Mag-Tek’s pinpad is the original hand-held electronic screen device with a registered trademark of iPad. However, due to the nature of trademark law, there are also iPad trademarks for electric motors and bra pads.

Eventually, however, Fujitsu just last year, was able to revive the "ipad" application and received what is called a Notice of Publication. During this time, an opposer can file what is called an opposition proceeding with the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board ("TTAB"). And guess who did? Yes, Apple has filed extensions of time to oppose the Fujitsu pending trademark application for "ipad" (the last extension request was filed on 12/23/2009). Interestingly, as of the date of this blog entry, and as far as we have researched, Apple has not applied for any trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO")for "ipad."

As a general rule, senior user's of a trademark have priority over all subsequent users. Apple will likely have to establish who was the first to use the "ipad" mark. If the past is any indication of how this dispute will go, Apple's prior trademark battles have been successful. According to a press release from February, 2007, Apple and Cisco (which both had legitimate claims to the iPhone trademark) agreed to dual trademark ownership rights.

Link to embed for the Apple February 2007 press release:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/02/21iphone.html