Apple has filed an appeal with the courts in China in hopes of overturning a December ruling that gave the iPad trademark to display maker Proview Technology. The court ruled against Apple after Proview claimed it hadn’t been involved in the negotiations to transfer the iPad name rights when Apple arranged the deal in 2010.

Proview attorney Xie Xianghui said that as part of its appeal Apple asked the court to give it the iPad trademark in China along with 4 million yuan (about US$636,204) for legal fees, according to Computerworld.

Proview registered the iPad name in China ten years ahead of Apple’s tablet launch, and the rights to the name were sold to the U.K.-based IP Applications by a Proview subsidiary. IP Applications then sold the Chinese rights to Apple in 2010.

Based on Proview’s arguments, however, the rights to the iPad name weren’t actually transfered because it didn’t attend the negotiations or transfer the rights itself. Apple thought the deal had been approved by Proview’s parent company, but apparently failed to file the proper paperwork to transfer the name rights for use in China.

The display maker followed up by suing Apple for about $1.6 billion for using the iPad trademark in China.

Apple has not commented on its freshly filed appeal.