Just days following the release of Apple Inc’s highly anticipated iPad tablet computer, a Chinese company specializing in tablet PC design threatened to filed a lawsuit against the US-based firm if it continues with the launch of the device in China.
Newspaper reports quoting Wu Xiaolong, the president of Shenzhen Great Loong Brothers, told that Apple allegedly copied the iPad design and features to the Chinese firm’s P88 tablet PC.
“We will file the necessary legal action if Apple attempts to sell iPad in China,” Xiaolong stressed, citing that the company was first to launch the P88 design at the Berlin International Electronics Fair six months ago.
However, intellectual property rights lawyer Ilan Barzolay pointed that Shenzhen will just have to wait for the debut of the iPad in China since it does not have the patent rights for the design in the US.
Barzolay, who is also a partner with Boston-based Seyfarth Shaw LLP, stressed that the Chinese firm should be prepared to go the distance in the patent dispute, saying that Apple is a much bigger company.
The expert also believe that the P88 developer will have difficulty in proving the patent infringement committed by Apple, saying that similar physical features cannot actually be hold against them.
“The iPad may look similar to the P88, however, the there are still many differences in the physical feature and the software features used in the Apple device that needed to be challenged in the lawsuit,” he said.
Based on comparison of the figures, iPad is just half-inch thick and weighs only 1.5 pounds. It also has a 9.7-inch touch-screen LCD interface and comes with a 16, 32, 64-gigabyte SSD. Meanwhile, the P88 is a lot bigger with 10.2-inch LCD screen and does not have the multi-touch functionality. It also uses a 250GB hard drive.
“Apple iPad and Shenzhen P88 may look similar. But the design features and interface is different, which include the buttons used in device,” the expert said.
Meanwhile, other technology experts said that Shenzhen is only riding in the wave of popularity of the iPad to make their product sell more.
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