Chinese Firm That Nailed Apple for $60 Mil Sued by Its Own Lawyers

By Maureen O'Gara

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July 29, 2012 01:00 PM EDT

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I distinctly remember marveling that a bankrupt Chinese company dragging around at least $400 million in debt owed to Chinese banks was able to afford lawyers to sue Apple when it lodged a short-lived suit against Apple in America.

Well, according to a Google translation of a Chinese-language story in Sina Tech, Grandall, the Chinese law firm, was fronting Proview Shenzhen's expenses and now it's suing Proview in China for a piece of the $60 million Apple agreed to pay to get clear ownership of the iPad trademark in China that Proview contested. Apple, of course, claimed it had already paid for the privilege.

Grandall wants the $2.4 million Proview promised or 4% of the $60 million that the Chinese court overseeing the negotiation ordered deposited in a special account to pay the banks. Proview reportedly refuses to pay the bill, calls the Grandall suit "a nonsense," and recants its alleged agreement because it's broke.

Apple released its latest iPad in China last Friday because of the settlement. China is Apple's second-largest market.

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

Source: http://iphoneforbusiness.ulitzer.com/node/2321476

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