HONG KONG (Reuters) - Authorities from some Chinese cities have ordered retailers to stop selling Apple Inc's tablet PCs due to a dispute with a domestic company that claims to own the iPad name, media reports said on Monday.
Proview Technology (Shenzhen) has asked commerce departments in a string of Chinese cities, including Shijiazhuang near Beijing, to seize iPads due to the name dispute, according to reports carried by the official People Daily and China.com.cn.
Reuters could not independently confirm the reports and Chinese officials and Apple in China were not immediately available for comment.
Late last year, a court in southern China rejected a lawsuit by Apple, accusing a Chinese technology company of infringing its iPad trademark, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, the latest move in a protracted tug-of-war over the name.
Proview said it lawfully registered the iPad trademark as long ago as 2000 for products in a number of countries including China, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported late last year, citing court documents.
Caixin Online reported in October that Proview was also taking legal action, seeking 10 billion yuan in compensation from Apple for copyright infringement.
(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
