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After Apple was forced to defend the all too known iPad trademark on the Chinese market in the legal war against the local company Proview, other tech companies started to wonder about the legal status of their trademark on the world’s largest national market. Facebook, apparently is the next in line to face trademark issues in China, but the notorious social network already hired a team of experts to look into the situation.

Although Facebook is active in China for over six years and the giant social network filed 61 trademark applications at to the Trademark Office of China’s industry and commerce authority for English and Chinese versions, the situation is still unclear.

Facebook representative, East IP Group, is looking into protecting the Facebook trademark considering that many Chinese companies have registered trademarks well known abroad, and Facebook is no exception. The Chinese definition of Facebook has already been claimed by a local company and the teams put together by Facebook are working on assessing legal options/ East IP Group explained for the local media that the company teams are working on collecting evidence with the hope to “reclaim these trademarks based on Facebook’s popularity and social awareness.”

Recently, Apple had to go through the legal mess of protecting iPad trademark from a Chinese company, Proview which managed to prove to a local court that it registered the iPad name and it legally owns it. Consequently, Apple could be in the position of trying to sell counterfeit merchandise, as its iPad are not the ones recognized as authentic by the authorities. The local customs started to confiscate iPad from Apple’s retailers. Unless Apple wins the appeal, it could result in serious damages on Apple’s strategy to conquer the largest market in the world. There are already talks about fierce negotiations between Apple and Proview, but the rights on iPad name won’t come cheap for the most wealthy tech company in the world.

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