Proview takes Apple legal brawl to US despite Shanghai setback

Published on Feb 24, 2012

A man walks past an iPad 2 advertisement in Shanghai Feb 23, 2012. Despite suffering a setback in a Shanghai court on Thursday, a financially-strapped Chinese company has reportedly opened up a US front in its legal war with Apple over the iPad trademark. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Despite suffering a setback in a Shanghai court on Thursday, a financially-strapped Chinese company has reportedly opened up a US front in its legal war with Apple over the iPad trademark.

Proview Technology filed a civil suit last week against Apple in a California state court near the iPad maker's headquarters in Silicon Valley, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The suit accuses Apple of acting with 'oppression, fraud and/or malice' when it used an innocuously-named subsidiary to buy the iPad trademark from Proview in December of 2009, according to the Journal.

A court in Shanghai threw out a civil case against Apple Inc on Thursday, citing a lack of evidence in a trademark dispute and ruled the US computer giant could continue iPad sales in the city.