According to reports, Chinese company Shenzhen Proview Technology has taken the legal route against Apple, by complaining to a Shanghai court that it has the rights to the `iPad' trademark in China.

While Shanghai's Pudong district court has convened a hearing on the issue on Wednesday, Proview has already filed lawsuits against Apple in a number of other courts too; and has also requested commercial authorities to block the sales of the popular Apple iPad tablet in as many as 40 cities.

In its allegations leveled against Apple, Proview has said that the Apple had acted fraudulently when it purchased the rights to the `iPad' trademark from Proview's Taiwan-based associate.

With Proview is looking to prevent the retailers in China from selling the iPad in the country, the company's lawyer Xie Xianghui has revealed that a last-week ruling by a lower court in Huizhou - a city in Guangdong - had already asked the distributors should discontinue their sales of the tablet in China.

However, Xie also added that since no final decisions have been reached in various legal scuffles involving the `iPad' trademark, it was still possible for Proview and Apple to "sit together and reach an out-of-court settlement."

Meanwhile, Apple has, in its defense, been reiterating that it had bought the rights to the `iPad' name in China and other countries in 2009; but Proview had backed out of the agreement to transfer the rights in mainland China.