The news attracted much attention on Sina Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like microblog service.

A netizen using the screen name "Sweety Rainbow" said that the dispute shows that Chinese companies have raised their intellectual property rights (IPR) protection awareness.

Some netizens believe that Proview aims at taking advantage of the lawsuit to make some money in order to save the company from bankruptcy.

Proview Shenzhen, which operates with a debt of about 1.15 billion yuan (181.9 millon US dollars), demanded 10 billion yuan in compensation over the lawsuit against Apple, the Guangzhou Daily reported Tuesday.

Netizen "Wang Ran" remarked that the ultimate point of IPR protection is not to give some companies a chance to get something for nothing.

However, many netizens care more about who has made the products rather than who owns the trademark.

Netizen "randomwalk" wrote that the value of the trademark mostly relies on Apple's high-profile credit, innovation, and service. Chinese companies should learn from the case and pay more attention to the innovation of their own products.

Proview Technology (Shenzhen) is a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-headquartered Proview International Holdings Limited, which also has a branch in Taipei.

Proview Taipei registered the iPad trademark in a number of countries and regions as early as 2000, and Proview Shenzhen registered the trademark on the Chinese mainland in 2001.

Apple bought the rights to use the trademark from Proview Taipei in February 2010 via IP Application Development Limited (IP), a company registered in Britain. However, Proview Shenzhen claims it still reserves the right to use the trademark on the Chinese mainland. The two sides have been tangled in a legal battle ever since.

The Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Shenzhen rejected a lawsuit by Apple and IP accusing Proview Shenzhen of infringing on the iPad trademark in December 2011.

Apple has appealed to the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province. The case is still pending.