Apple fined by China court for copyright violation

China is one of the fastest growing markets for Apple's products

A court in China has ordered Apple to pay compensation to eight Chinese writers and two companies for violating their copyrights.

They had claimed that unlicensed electronic versions of their books had been sold on Apple's online store.

The court ordered Apple to pay them 1.03m yuan ($165,000; £100,000) in compensation, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

This is the second time Apple has been fined for copyright violation in China.

In September, a Chinese court ordered Apple to pay compensation of 520,000 yuan to a Chinese encyclopaedia publisher for alleged copyright violation. The US technology firm has appealed against that decision.

Carolyn Wu, a spokeswoman for Apple said the company takes "copyright infringement complaints very seriously".

"We're always updating our service to better assist content owners in protecting their rights," she added.

Legal troubles

Apple has had other legal issues in China as well.

Earlier this year, it faced a lawsuit from a Chinese firm Proview, which claimed that it owned the rights to the "iPad" name in the Chinese market after registering it in 2000.

Apple said it had bought the global rights to the "iPad" from Proview's Taiwanese affiliate for $55,000 (£35,000).

However, the Chinese firm had argued that its affiliate did not have the rights to sell the iPad name rights for China, which is one of the fastest-growing markets for Apple's products.

The dispute between the two firms resulted in Apple's iPads being pulled off the shelves in some parts of China.

In July, Apple agreed to pay $60m to Proview to settle the dispute.