As Apple launched the iPad on the media without actually owning the trade mark itself, one wonders whether infringement was ever a concern for the green geeks.  At the end of the day, infringement does cover marketing as well as offering for sale.

It undoubtedly must have made the negotiating position harder, as everyone was out there talking about the iPad and it was perhaps a bit late in the day for Apple to rebrand after that whole Steve Jobs “this is the future” lecture.

However, legalese being stranger than fiction, with the product launch about a week to go Apple managed to get the trade mark assigned to them from Fujitsu Siemens, just in time.

Apple had already filed a request to take the trademark away from its owner Fujitsu. In fact, the two companies have been battling over the mark since last fall, with Apple filing three separate extension requests to challenge the validity of Fujitsu’s ownership.

Apple had filed for a trademark for iPad in Canada, Europe and Hong Kong, but in the U.S. it was already tied up by Fujitsu who had an existing product using that name: a handheld device used by retail workers.

Fujitsu first filed for the trademark in 2003, but stopped responding to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s requests for additional information. The USPTO never awarded the official trademark and ended up declaring the name “abandoned” in April 2009.

Figures out recently show that the iPad is likely to sell best to current Apple ‘fanboys’ and younger consumers, with 24% considering a purchase.