Bankruptcy threat to iPad trademark challenger

SHANGHAI (AP) — A major creditor of Proview Electronics, which is challenging Apple Inc.'s use of the iPad trademark, has moved to have the ailing computer monitor maker liquidated, reports said Monday.

Taiwan-based Fubon Insurance is seeking $8.68 million in debts and has filed an application to have Proview declared bankrupt, the reports by the Xinhua News Agency and other mainland media said.

Proview's mainland Chinese subsidiary is based in the southern export zone of Shenzhen, where an official at the city's Intermediate Court said he expected an announcement regarding the case soon.

"It's a sensitive case in a sensitive period of time, so we won't comment or release information while we will have an announcement in the near future," said the official who gave only his surname, Zhu.

Proview lawyer Ma Dongxiao said the company believes its financial problems won't affect the handling of a court case in which Apple is appealing a ruling against its claim to the iPad trademark in China.

Apple says it bought the trademark from Proview Electronics in 2009. Proview is suing Apple in the U.S., seeking to have that deal ruled invalid. It says the 35,000 British pound ($55,000) deal did not include the mainland Chinese iPad trademark, which was owned by the mainland unit, Shenzhen Proview Technology.

Fubon staff in China refused comment Monday. A court official in Shenzhen, who refused to be named, likewise said he could not comment on the liquidation order.

Proview's mainstream computer monitor business fell on hard times in 2008 and the company is liquidating assets as it goes through a restructuring. Its main product line is now LED street lights.

It has urged Apple to settle out of court, presumably for far more than the 2009 deal, in exchange for ending the trademark dispute.

Apple has evinced no interest in such a settlement, saying it believes it owns the iPad trademark.

___

Researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.