A North Korean iPad? Apple's Trademark Being Used In Pyongyang, Violating Copyright

A state-owned North Korean company is advertizing a locally made tablet under the copyrighted name of Apple’s flagship tablet, the iPad, NK News reported citing the North Korean Foreign Trade magazine in which an ad for the tablet was published.

"Ryonghung iPad is now popular among customers. It can perform a range of functions such as reading different sources of digital information, office work and documentation. And it also has more than 40 apps. The iPad has been certified by the local GMP system, and highly appreciated at the third national sci-tech festival and the national intellectual property products show in 2016," it continued. GMP stands for "Good Project Management" the copy read, ironically mentioning the product, which violates Apple’s copyright, was presented at a show with ‘intellectual property’ in its name — the National Intellectual Property products show.

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The tablet specs include a 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 8GB internal memory, 16GB external Memory, an eight-inch screen and a battery, which the company claims lasts for 6 hours.

Apple’s iPad comes with a warning against violating copyrights, which hasn’t made any difference to North Korea. “You may not use or register, in whole or in part, Apple, iPod, iTunes, Macintosh, iMac, or any other Apple trademark, including Apple-owned graphic symbols, logos, icons, or an alteration thereof, as or as part of a company name, trade name, product name, or service name except as specifically noted in these guidelines,” the company’s guidelines for its trademarks and copyrights read.

“iPad” is mentioned as a registered Apple trademark on its website. To use the term on any products, manufacturers in any part of the world generally need to ask Apple’s permission to use the term for any products.

The company is yet to respond on the breach of its copyright.

Apple does have a history of taking other companies to court for the violation of its copyright. The company has fought a long patent war with Samsung and is currently suing Qualcomm over being forced to pay extra loyalties. With its history of litigiousness, it would be a surprise, if Apple does not take up the matter. That being said, this is not the first time North Korea has violated American copyrights, or even the first time it has infringed Apple’s products. The country uses a national Linux-based operating system, called the Red Star OS, which is suspiciously similar in its design to Apple’s OSX operating system.

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North Korea’s state-run economy generally does not follow international trade or intellectual property rules and therefore has become a grey market for very similar, copyright-infringing adaptations of products from major brands.

The Ryonghung tablet was launched in North Korea in 2013, but at that time it was called “Ryonghung-trademarked tablet computer.” In 2015, the tablet was disassembled by a North Korean defector and it was found the memory chip was manufactured by SK Hynix, which actually makes chipsets for Apple products