News July 02 10:58 am

Hey China, $60 million later and you can have iPads now!

So a super clever name like ‘iPad’ is worth millions of dollars in law suits – yea. The price to settle this dispute ended with Apple dishing over $60 million to make everything right again in the Chinese market. After all, China is second only to America in iPad sales worldwide.

This whole ordeal started with Apple Inc. claiming that they had bought the global rights to use the name ‘iPad’ from Shenzhen Proview Technology in 2009. Despite what Apple thought though, the Chinese authorities claim the rights were never actually transferred. This ended with the authorities seizing iPads.

While Proview hoped to squeeze more money out of Apple, talks about $400 million (hot damn), they were forced to settle for $60 million to pay off depts. The good news is that this is now officially settled and iPads can be distributed across China again! Yay.

"The iPad dispute resolution is ended," the Guangdong High People's Court said in a statement. "Apple Inc. has transferred $60 million to the account of the Guangdong High Court as requested in the mediation letter."

Lots of money was exchanged and everyone lived happily ever after.

The End.

[NYTimes]