Apple appeals China Encyclopedia copyright court ruling

Apple Inc has appealed against a court ruling which ordered the U.S. electronics giant to pay 520,000 yuan (82,670 U.S. dollars) in compensation to the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House for copyright infringements.

Sun Jianhong, the publishing house's attorney, told Xinhua Wednesday he had seen the appellant petition filed by Apple, which had been forwarded to the appellant court on Tuesday.

"We have always been confident all through the first-instance trial procedures, and we remain confident for the appellant trial," the lawyer said.

He said the publishing house will try to secure a ruling upholding the first trial decision.

On Sept. 27, Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court ruled that Apple pay the publishing house 520,000 yuan in compensation for economic losses incurred by its unauthorized use of a digital version of part of the Encyclopedia of China. The digital version was available via its App store.

Apple did not respond to Xinhua's request for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

The company has encountered other intellectual property right disputes in China.

Last month, the same court heard a lawsuit filed by eight Chinese writers for Apple's unlicensed sale, at the App store, of electronic versions of their books. The writers have demanded compensation of 10 million yuan.

In July, the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province announced that the company had agreed to pay 60 million U.S. dollars to Proview technology (Shenzhen) to settle a dispute over the iPad trademark.