International Business Machines (IBM) has opened China’s first dedicated plant for rebuilding and refurbishing old server computers, placing it at the forefront of a niche domestic market worth about USD18 billion by 2014. The firm said the new Shenzhen “re-manufacturing center”, its ninth such facility worldwide, would help reduce the environmental impact of “e-waste” – discarded electrical and electronic devices – by extending the life of older information technology equipment that would otherwise go into landfills. Richard Dicks, General Manager at IBM’s Global Asset Recovery Services unit, said the firm was “the first IT provider licensed by the government to re-manufacture servers in mainland China”. The Shenzhen facility will initially handle hundreds of IBM’s Power Systems-brand servers that the firm plans to buy this year from corporate customers, as they upgrade to new IBM equipment. Each server will be reconditioned, tested and certified by IBM or rebuilt to meet specific customer needs. Labelled “IBM Certified Pre-owned Equipment”, these low-cost servers will be sold mostly to small and mid-sized businesses. IBM said the Shenzhen re-manufacturing center will rapidly expand to annually process about 100,000 low-end and mid-range IBM servers, personal computers (PCs), and servers from other computer brands by 2014. Technology research firm IDC said the Chinese market for used information-technology equipment would reach USD25 billion by 2014. Preliminary estimates by market research firm Gartner show that IBM led China, the world’s second-largest information technology market after the United States, in total server sales last year. IBM’s China revenue climbed 27% to USD2.51 billion last year, from USD1.97 billion in 2010 – seizing a 44 % domestic market share, the South China Morning Post reports.

Proview Technology, which is battling Apple over the iPad trademark in China, has asked distributors to stop selling the new iPad after Apple announced its launch. The Higher People’s Court in Guangzhou heard Apple’s appeal on the trademark lawsuit on February 29 and is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks or months. Chinese media have reported that Proview is seeking up to CNY10 billion in compensation for trademark infringement. Proview has said it favors an out-of-court settlement, which usually involves the payment of compensation. Analysts have said the company needs funds to repay its creditors. Hejun Vanguard, a consulting company representing Proview creditors, said in a statement that the iPad trademark on the mainland belonged to them. Proview’s main creditors are Bank of China (BOC), China Minsheng Banking, China Development Bank (CDB), China Guangfa Bank, Bank of Communications (BoCom), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), Hua Xia Bank and Shenzhen Pingan Bank. Experts say the chances are slim that Proview Shenzhen will be able to block the import and export of iPads and that it is unlikely the company will be able to meet all the requirements for filing a successful petition.

Revenue of Shanghai’s integrated circuit (IC) industry, which accounts for one-third of the total revenue nationwide, may grow 12% annually this year, according to Xue Zi, Deputy General Secretary of the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association (SIA). In 2011, Shanghai’s IC industry revenue was CNY63 billion, up an annual 17.2%. The revenue may grow 12% year on year in 2012, according to SIA. By comparison, China’s IC industry revenue will “remain unchanged or have single-digit growth” this year compared with a revenue of CNY157.2 billion last year, according to the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA). In 2011, the revenue of the chip design sector in Shanghai grew 39.1% annually to CNY14.9 billion, compared with CNY12.8 billion in the IC manufacturing industry, which fell 4.2% from a year ago. “Chip design is the flagship sector of the whole IC industry chain representing innovation and the development level of the industry,” said Xue. “The rapid growth of the design sector will fuel the revenue of manufacturing, assembly and testing sectors in the future.” Four of the top 10 chip design firms in 2011 are from Shanghai, according to Chen Xian, CSIA’s Secretary General.

In a bid to make the area a center for next-generation information technologies, a cloud data center will be built on the main island of Pingtan county in Fujian province, China’s closest gateway to Taiwan. The center will be a platform to strengthen cooperation between the province and Taiwan in the cloud computing industry, benefiting both sides of the Taiwan Strait. China Telecom and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom have already reached an agreement to set up a cloud data processing center with 200,000 advanced servers on Pingtan Island. The local government believes that the program can attract CNY30 billion in investment, which would generate revenue of CNY14 billion annually from the software industry and other industries related with information services. The government expects the center to create 11,700 new jobs. An undersea communication cable connecting Fuzhou in Fujian province and the Tamsui district in Taiwan will be installed in the first half of the year to better serve the center. In February, the local government said they will make preferential policies designed to attract small and medium-sized enterprises from Taiwan.

Following the launch of its new iPad, Apple accused Proview Technology (Shenzhen) of “misleading Chinese courts” and the public about its claim to the “iPad” trademark. Carolyn Wu, Apple’s Spokeswoman in Beijing, said: “We respect Chinese laws and regulations, and as a company that generates a lot of intellectual property we would never knowingly abuse someone else’s trademarks.” Proview Shenzhen, a subsidiary of failed Hong Kong-listed computer display maker Proview International, maintains that it did not sell its rights to two China-registered iPad trademarks, despite a Hong Kong court ruling last year that upheld Apple’s ownership based on a December 23, 2009 agreement. But the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of the mainland firm in November in a trademark-infringement case filed by Apple. Apple appealed the ruling in the Guangdong Higher People’s Court, which suggested last month that the two sides try to strike a deal. Proview Shenzhen had earlier said the China trademarks would cost Apple up to USD2 billion. “Our representatives approached Proview Shenzhen in 2009 and negotiated to acquire the rights to the iPad name – including 10 trademarks, two of which are registered in the PRC,” Wu said, noting that Proview had not used the iPad name for more than three years when their talks started. Dismissing Proview Shenzhen’s claim that the iPad trademarks were not transferred, or that mistakes were made in handling the transaction, Wu said the firm’s managers “were well aware of what they were doing and insisted on selling the trademarks through an affiliate company” – Proview Electronics in Taiwan. “Proview clearly made that arrangement so they wouldn’t have to give the money to their creditors in the PRC,” she said. “Proview didn’t want to pay its debts in 2009 when it sold the iPad trademarks, and because they still owe a lot of people a lot of money, they are now unfairly trying to get more from Apple for a trademark we already paid for.” Apple, which paid GBP35,000 for Proview’s worldwide iPad trademarks, was sued by Taipei-based Proview Electronics in California last month in an attempt to rescind that transaction. Talks between Apple and a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-listed firm Proview International over the rights to the iPad name in China have stalled, Proview said. Taiwan-based Fubon Insurance, a major creditor of Proview Technology, has moved to have the company liquidated, based on USD8.68 million in outstanding debts dating back to 2010.