Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced that it will officially launch the next generation of iPad on March 7.

Proview, which filed a patent lawsuit against the tech giant, has pursued a serious effort to ensure that no Chinese consumer will get their hands on the new iPad 3 unless a settlement is reached.

A court in Shanghai released a decision in favor of Apple as it refused to stop the company from using iPad’s trademark in mainland China. Proview then took the legal battle in Apple’s home court and sued the Cupertino-based company in California. Many lawyers and legal analysts believed that Apple will be able to pull this off as the company successfully bought the iPad brand name from Proview in 2009. This is something Proview contests, as they claim another company, namely “IP Application Development” bought the trademark.

However, China is one of Apple’s biggest markets and the company cannot afford to lose the market and its consumers. Although it is now certain that Apple is bound to unveil its latest iPad on March 7, the guessing game now is when the device WILL ACTUALLY be available to customers. There was a rumor that Apple will release the next generation of iPad in Germany on March 23. Last year, Apple unveiled the second generation of iPad on March 2. It was made available in the U.S. on March 11 and had an international release in UK and Germany as well as 23 other countries on March 25. If the same schedule will be followed this year, it is speculated that the device will be released in the U.S. on March 16 and have an international release on March 30.