The iPhone 5 News Blog

The story alleging that Chinese authorities had recently pulled iPad 2s from the shelves in mainland China over a trademark dispute took a new turn today, with Apple claiming that they requested that the iPads be removed. But there are still questions about this story that need to be answered.

Yesterday we reported on a breaking story out of mainland China, where it was reported that Chinese authorities seized shipments of iPads, on account of the current legal battle between Apple and Proview, which claims to have first owned the “iPad” trademark. Today, apple took steps to tamp down the escalating story by claiming that they had in fact requested that the iPads be pulled, and not because of the trademark fight, but rather over a reseller dispute.

According to TFTS: “The current reports suggest that the reason Amazon China pulled the iPad from its shelves had nothing at all to do with the ongoing legal wranglings between Apple and Proview, a Chinese firm which asserts it owns the rights to the name iPad. The actual cause behind it was that Amazon China was not an authorized Apple reseller, and that the issue between the two is really an ancillary matter, with both Apple and Amazon China having worked on this issue for weeks, and even before the Proview issues really got started in earnest.”

At face value, this explanation from Apple would seem to put the matter to rest. But TFTS adds that “However, no such explanation seems to exist for Chinese online retailer Suning, who also pulled the iPad from its listings, but without much in the way of contact from Apple.”

So, in spite of the fact that Apple’s PR department went out of their way to attempt to stifle speculation over sales of the iPad 2 in China and, even more importantly, how this Proview situation could potentially escalate to the point where it could affect iPad 3 and iPhone 5 production, there is still a dangling loose end to the story: why did Suning pull iPads from its listings? Because there is still no explanation from this particular Chinese reseller — or Apple for that matter — the issue still remains open.

The only difference is that now Apple is giving the appearance of looking defensive, and perhaps even desperate to appease an uneasy Chinese government, which could very easily bar Apple from doing business in mainland China and completely destroy Cupertino’s business model. Given these implications, it isn’t hard to imagine how Apple has very little leverage with the Communist Chinese government; while Google’s well-documented battles in China have merely kept them out of their market, Apple’s success is inextricably tied to being able to have its premium-priced products assembled on the Chinese mainland, where staffers suffer horrid working condition and work for pennies an hour. If Apple were to lose the ability to assemble in China, prices for the iPad, iPhone, and all of Apple’s beloved products would necessarily skyrocket.

It remains to be seen if the public will ever get the full story on what has transpired in China over the iPad. And given the “crony Capitalism” that dominates Beijing, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that the trademark issue between Proview and Apple will be settled behind the scenes, with large sums of money changing hands in order to grease the wheels of the totalitarian Chinese system.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on any further developments regarding this story.

By Michael Nace

Note: Our original article on this story came from a great report from Ben Shapiro at Big Peace.