Chinese Beijing Evening News (via MyDrivers) is reporting that Apple can happily launch their iWatch device in China today without fear of patent trolls knocking on their door.
According to the report, there are currently three companies in China with the “iWatch” trademark . However, these companies are not in a position to bring lawsuits against Apple.
Apple was ambushed by Proview Technology (Shenzhen) and had to pay $60 million to the Chinese company to end a protracted legal dispute over the iPad trademark in China. At the time, Proview requested the authorities in many of Chinese cities to order resellers to take all iPads off their shelves, hampering sales of the iPad in the country.
Here are the three organizations with documentation of their “iWatch” trademark (hope you can read Chinese):
Qin Yi Digital Technology Co., Ltd. in October 2008 applied for the trademark, trademark class 9, specifically including computers; computer peripherals, satellite navigation equipment; cameras and other fields. The report highlights that the review of the trademark application was rejected and has now lapsed.
Bet these guys wished they were more persistent.
Here are the two companies currently do have a “iWatch” trademarks. However, the report states that the types of goods described in the trademark application had nothing to do with an intelligent watch or computer.
