Scraps of metal, broken glass, this is what it looks like in China when a company falls apart. Proview was once know for its LCDs, now it's famous for litigation. It's taken Apple to court here in China over the trademark of the word iPad. I spoke with the company's lawyer here in Shenzhen. He told me it comes down to a settlement. That's what they want to see. They are waiting for Apple to come back to the table.
--We already have an amount in our mind. I think it's a huge amount but I can not tell you now.
--You are talking about 5 billion? 10 billion? or how?
--Yeah, maybe.
Xie tells me that Proview no longer makes its own version of iPad, that's the settle of this dispute. And that it did in fact licensed the trademark to Apple, but that was the Taiwanese company that licensed to Apple, not the one here in Shenzhen China. So what they are gonna do next? They've asked authorities here in China to ban both the import and the export of Apple's iPad, a move that could be crippling for production and really hurt the company's bottom line. Proview admits the likelihood that they are going through is slim and they are hoping for a settlement. The big question is when does that happen and how much is Apple willing to pay.
Jon Gordon in Shenzhen, for Reuters
