Proview's iPad Suit Threatened by Bankruptcy Petition

An impatient creditor’s involuntary bankruptcy suit threatens to end Shenzhen Proview’s lawsuit against Apple for using the IPAD name, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

Fubon Insurance is seeking an expedited ruling on its involuntary liquidation petition which it had initially filed last June based on $8.68 million it is owed by Proview. A ruling on that petition is now overdue, possibly in sympathy with Proview’s position that a potential $2 billion judgment it may collect against Apple will be able to satisfy all such claims.

Proview currently has assets of about $320 million but faces debts of up to $2 billion, according to representations of the firm’s attorneys at a bankruptcy hearing last December.

Proview is a Taiwan-based maker of displays that won a favorable ruling from a Shenzhen court in December on its suit against Apple on the ground that it has violated Proview’s IPAD trademark. Proview had registered the trademark in late 2000 with the intention of marketing a touch-sensitive tablet-type PC under that brand. Apple had bought the rights to the trademark from Proview’s Taiwan branch in 2009 but had failed to include the Shenzhen branch in the purchase agreement.

Under Chinese law, if a creditor’s involuntary bankruptcy petition is granted, the debtor’s pending lawsuits would be ended. The court is expected to render a decision any day as the deadline for a decision has passed.

Proview is seen as having a high probability of seeing a large payout from Apple, either in the form of a judgment or a settlement.