PROVIEW Shenzhen’s tumultuous dispute with Apple intensified Friday, when Proview said it plans to sue Apple in a U.S. court for alleged violation of a 2009 agreement involving the iPad trademark.

    “If everything goes well, we might file a claim against Apple in the United States a month from now,” Proview Group founder Yang Longsan said in a Beijing news conference Friday.

    Proview denied it was seeking an excessively huge amount of compensation, following media reports that claimed it was taking advantage of the lawsuit to save the company from bankruptcy.

    Guangzhou Daily reported Tuesday that Proview operates with a debt of about 1.15 billion yuan (US$183 million), and had demanded 10 billion yuan in compensation.

    Lawyer Ma Dongxiao, representing Proview Shenzhen, said the only compensation claim is for 100,000 yuan, which is for payment of lawyers and related travel expenses.

    According to Proview, IP Application Development, which bought the iPad trademark in 2009 from the Taiwan-based Proview Electronics and then sold it to Apple, promised it would not produce anything that competes with Proview’s products with the same trademark.

    Yang said Proview started producing its Internet Personal Access Device in 2000. The device looks like a small, ordinary PC, uses touch-panel technology and was sold in Europe and the United States, Yang said.

    “According to international trademark law, despite the differences between the appearance and technology of the iPad of Proview and that of Apple, they belong to the same category,” Proview lawyer Xie Xianghui said.

    (Han Ximin)