July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. paid $60 million to settle a two-year-old legal dispute with Proview International Holdings Ltd. regarding the iPad trademark in China.
The terms of the settlement agreement were reached on June 25 and Apple has transferred the funds as agreed, the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province announced in a statement on its website today. Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu didn't immediately return calls to her office and mobile phones.
The dispute had centered on whether Proview's Taiwan unit, which Apple paid 35,000 pounds ($54,800) in 2009 to use the iPad name in mainland China, had the right to sell it or whether that rested with Proview's Shenzhen unit, which held the mark. Apple sued Proview Shenzhen in 2010 claiming ownership of the iPad trademark in China and lost. Its appeal of that case was heard on Feb. 29, and the two sides had engaged in court-sponsored mediation since then.
Before the agreement, Proview had applied to Chinese customs to block shipments of Apple's iPad tablets in and out of China, and asked local retailers to stop sales of the product.
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