Shanzhai calls the iPad a clone, plans to take Apple to court in China

According to Spanish site Elmundo, shanzhai manufacturer 'Shenzhen Great Long Brother' are considering taking legal action against Apple for copying their tablet design. Featured on Shanzai.com back in October, its seems that the P88 tablet design is considered by its designers to be entirely original, the intellectual rights of which it intends to protect. Talk about the shoe being on the other foot!

Elmundo reporter Aritz Parra managed to get the CEO of 'Great Long' Wu Xiaolong, on the blower to explain his reaction to the Apple iPad: "I was very angry and flabbergasted when I saw the news of the iPad presentation two days ago... It is certainly our design. They've stolen because we present our P88 to everyone six months ago at the IFA". According to Wu, Great Long applied for a product patent back in May 2009, presumably in China. Wu added, "....if the iPad enters the Chinese market, we will sue them this spring."

Having weighed up the pros and cons of the two devices, their relative merits and design features a few days ago (here), it easy to see why Apple's loyal fans see few similarities between the two devices. The P88 runs Windows 7 on a netbook processor platform and integrates the latest USB, audio, card reader technologies in a device that allows you to run multiple applications and comes with Wi-FI and Ethernet networking as standard. So yeah, pretty different when you get close up. Both devices retail for similar 500USD price points.



But hey, Mr Wu is trying to make one very simple point. Great Long went and made a tablet device that basically looked exactly like a big iPhone or iPod. Then Apple came along six months later and launched pretty much the very same thing. Just what will happen when the iPad gets launched in China remains to be seen, but I have a feeling that any presiding court in China might just sway in favor of Great Long. This could cause significant ripples in the intellectual property debate surrounding Chinese-made, and more recently, Chinese-designed products and their increasing penetration of traditionally Western dominated markets.



Or, put another way. It seems the Shanzhai are about ready to stand and defend their own turf, refusing to be unceremoniously branded as copycats when the obvious facts point to the opposite. If they can get a legal leg to stand on in China, things could get really interesting.

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