( CNN ) -- More than two years after releasing its game-changing tablet computer , Apple now actually owns the name `` iPad . '' A Chinese court says the company has paid $ 60 million to a Taiwanese firm for the rights , nailing down the name as its own in a country that is increasingly becoming a huge market for electronics . Shenzhen Proview Technology had trademarked the name `` iPad '' in 2001 . Apple paid the company about $ 55,000 in 2009 . But Chinese authorities refused to recognize the payment and ruled last year that Proview still owned the name in that country . `` The iPad dispute resolution is ended , '' the Guangdong High People 's Court said in a statement acquired by the New York Times . `` Apple Inc. has transferred $ 60 million to the account of the Guangdong High Court as requested in the mediation letter . '' Apple did not immediately return a message seeking comment Monday morning . China is already Apple 's second-biggest market behind the United States . It only shows signs of growing as more of its roughly 1.3 billion people become more tech-savvy . A lawyer for Proview told the Times that the company hoped for more money but settled because it has debts to pay . He said it had wanted as much as $ 400 million , according to the Times . Proview had argued that Apple did n't negotiate in good faith , using a shell company that promised not to make competing products under the iPad label . The company alleges the negotiator concealed that he was working for Apple , gave a false name and said the company he represented was IP Application Development -- or IPAD , for short . The dispute certainly has n't slowed demand for the tablet and other Apple products in China . When the iPad 2 was released last year , a skirmish broke out outside a Beijing Apple Store after a man believed to be a scalper was escorted away by security after trying to cut in line . And some Chinese entrepreneurs do n't even worry so much about the Apple products they sell actually being Apple products . Last year , authorities discovered 22 fake Apple Stores in just one city and ordered them to either change their names or shut down . It was unclear at the time whether the gadgets they were selling were actually Apple 's or fakes .
Apple finally acquires the ' ` ` ' '' in China . Chinese authorities did n't recognize a deal Apple struck in Taiwan . Apple reportedly pays $ 60 million to Taiwan 's Shenzhen Proview Technology . Proview Technology Apple negotiated as a fake company : IP Application Development .