The Chinese legal row which is keeping iPads off the shelf is spreading to other countries. The Asian firm trying to stop Apple from using the iPad name in China has launched an attack in California that accuses the iPhone-maker of employing deception when it bought the "iPad" trademark.

Proview is suing the US company in multiple Chinese jurisdictions and requesting that sales of iPads be suspended across the country. Proview accuses Apple of creating a "special purpose" entity,  IP Application Development, or IPAD  to buy the iPad name from it.  The idea was to hide the fact that Apple was about to release a product with that name. Proview alleged lawyers for IPAD repeatedly said it would not be competing with the Chinese firm, and refused to say why they needed the trademark. The company claimed that those representations were made "with the intent to defraud and induce the plaintiffs to enter into the agreement."

Apple, which has said Proview is refusing to honour a years-old agreement, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Authorities in several Chinese cities have already seized iPads, citing the legal dispute. In China Proview holds the iPad trademark in China and has been using the courts to get retailers in some smaller cities to stop selling the tablet PCs. All Apple has to do to stop this nightmare is write the outfit a cheque.  However that would mean having to admit that Steve Jobs did not invent the name iPad and that is central belief in Apple's reality distortion field.

More here.