Posted on 02/14/2012 8:14:48 AM PST by Astronaut
Earlier this week, we noted that Chinese authorities had begun seizing iPad stocks from a small number of retailers over Apple's alleged infringement of a disputed "iPad" trademark. Apple claims that it purchased the Chinese rights to the trademark several years ago, but the original owner Proview and Chinese courts have disagreed with that assertion.
Bloomberg now notes that Proview is seeking to go beyond local enforcement and is asking Chinese customs officials to block both imports and exports of the iPad over the issue. With iPad production taking place in China, a successful bid by Proview could cut off Apple's supplies of the device throughout the world. “We are applying to customs to stop any trademark- infringing products from imports to China and also for exports,” said [Proview lawyer Roger] Xie, who is based in Shenzhen. “Apple wants to postpone and continue infringement of the iPad in China.” Calling a potential export ban "catastrophic" for Apple, one Chinese legal expert notes that pressure on Apple to settle the case has dramatically increased. A halt to exports from China would be “catastrophic” for Apple because it would mean a global halt to iPad sales, said Stan Abrams, an intellectual property lawyer and a law professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. The threat of an export ban increases the pressure on Apple to settle the case, he said.
“There’s got to be a settlement, and fairly soon,” Abrams said. “I can’t see how much more incentivized to settle Apple could be.” Apple continues to maintain that it acquired "worldwide" rights to the iPad in ten countries, including China, as part of an earlier deal. Apple's case is still pending with Chinese courts as it seeks to appeal earlier rulings.
Is it too early for me to detect the sarcasm, or do you really want to go back to a pre-internet, and pre-Free Republic, society?
I agree. It looks like a major supply chain management oops. An iPad is basically 10 electronic sub assemblies plugged together and stacked in a case. Everything that supports its production - silicon and PC board fab, assembly and test are commodity resources available everywhere. It’s not like they have millions of dollars tied up in one-off precision tooling.
Hind sight is always 20/10, but it would have been wise to be prepared to turn on production in another location in a heartbeat.
Of course I would go back 30-40- years ...America was much better back then in a thousand ways. America was much better put together. America was more functional and producing with less emphasis on consumption.
Of course I would go back 30-40- years ...America was much better back then in a thousand ways. America was much better put together. America was more functional and producing with less emphasis on consumption.
How does it feel to have all your eggs in the ChiCom basket, Apple?
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Apple is making iPads and iPhones in Brazil as well.
Why? They own the worldwide rights to the name, purchased from the company's owner. At worst they change the name of the iPad in China... or don't sell them there under that name.
No, they are not. Show me another manufacturer making iPads... Apple subsidized the building of the factories
bookmark
Cheers!
Cheers!
Another good reason to pull production back to the US.
“masturbatory electronic devices”
In public too! Have they no shame?
I don’t understand your comment. Apple chose a single source so by definition, there is only one manufacturer.
My point is that the process is highly transportable unlike a precision mechanical assembly where you can have very long lead time items like complicated robotic assembly lines, and manufacturing processes that require significant knowledge transfer when they move.
Pretty much every contract electronics manufacturer in the world is already set up to stack a bunch of parts into a case and to an end of line test. The Tooling (bills of material, PCB artwork etc) can be transferred in an email. The gating item in setting up another source for iPads would probably be component lead times.
When Apple switched screen materials for the iPhone, Foxconn roused 8,000 workers in the middle of the night, fed them biscuits and tea, and led them to the assembly line to make the last-minute change while maintaining a target delivery date.
Do you really think unionized US labor could pull this off?
There is the problem of all those CNC milling machines for the aluminum cases. Not many electronics manufacturers have those set up for production. I believe Apple's parts makers such as Foxconn are the only ones using it on such a large scale. And with Apple's investment they bought up much of the world production of such machines for a while, so it would be hard for anyone else to get up to speed very quickly.
This is just one little company being greedy and stupid. China loves Apple manufacturing there and would not want to lose it.
Micron makes various sorts of memory in Manassas, Virginia ... if Apple's overseas suppliers get froggy, there ARE alternatives.
When Apple made things in America, were their factories unionized? I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.
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