A David vs Goliath battle between Apple and Proview Technology of Taiwan over the rights to the iPad name is now over.  Apple has settled a lawsuit with Proview by agreeing to pay $60 million for the legal rights to use the iPad trademark in China.

The news was announced on Monday on the website for the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province.

According to Xie Xianghui, a lawyer for the Chinese company involved, the settlement was settled a week ago.  Said Xie, “It was done last week and it was confirmed with a ruling by the higher court.”

Mr. Xie said that Proview Technology did not regard the settlement amount as large but that his client is satisfied.  He added that it will take another week or two for the iPad trademark rights to Apple.

This all started when Proview said it sold the iPad trademark rights to IP Application Development for 35,000 Pounds, or about $55,000 in December 2009. Proview said Apple committed fraud because Apple never fully disclosed IP Application Development was in fact their subsidiary and that the lawyer from IP Application Development misled Proview by lying about his name and the intended use of the iPad name.

Apple of course denies this and after prodding by the Chinese government, both parties went into settlement mode this spring.

Now that the litigation is over, Apple can finally launch its iPad brand without any legal restraint.  China has emerged as one of Apple’s largest markets, second only behind the United States.