Artemisia Ng in Hong Kong and Melanie Lee in Shanghai:

A Chinese tech firm claiming to own the “iPad” trademark plans to seek a ban on shipments of Apple Inc’s computer tablets into and out of China, a lawyer for the company, Proview Technology (Shenzhen), said on Tuesday.

It’s a boring legal dispute, but imagine the repercussions of Proview winning this.

1. No one would be getting iPads — the import and export will be blocked.
2. Foxconn workers would be laid off.

Basically this is more than just not being able to buy an iPad, or seeing iPad delays — it would have a huge impact on the Chinese work force and one of the largest employers: Foxconn.

Should be interesting to watch.

(Apple, of course, says they already own the trademark from Proview.)