Proview claims another legal victory, Apple threatens defamation lawsuit

It looks like Proview and Apple are now engaged in a billion dollar game of chicken. Proview claimed yesterday to have won another victory against Apple, this time in Intermediate People’s Court in Huizhou, in Guangdong Province. The ruling according to Proview, states that Chinese retailers should stop selling iPads within China.

Proview has reportedly filed more than 40 lawsuits in different provincial courts, so we may see victories (or defeats) reported on a regular basis, although most of these court ruling will ultimately be governed either by an out of court settlement, or when a higher Chinese court makes a final ruling.

Apple isn’t content to sit around and wait for that ruling, however, and has sent a cease and desist letter to Proview officials, claiming that Proview is releasing information to the press about their copyright deal that it knows to be false; Apple indicates that these claims injure their reputation, and are threatening to sue Proview for defamation if they continue to make such claims to the media.

With Proview looking to file suit in the U.S. against Apple, and Apple now threatening to open up another line of attack in the Chinese courts, it’s not clear who will blink first. Apple certainly has some of the best lawyers that money can buy, but in China at least Proview is playing on its home court.

We feel certain that this will eventually be resolved out of court, for now the companies are jostling for leverage to see who gets to dictate the terms of such an agreement. One small bit of relief for the rest of the world – both sides seem to agree that it’s unlikely that Chinese officials would agree to Proview's request to block exports of the iPad out of China, so this set of lawsuits is unlikely to have a significant impact on customers in the rest of the world.

source: PCWorld via Tech Crunch; 9to5Mac