Oh, that whacky Proview! They truly are the new Psystar, the scrappy underdog who took on Apple over being able to use Mac OS X in their clone hardware. Not content to fight Apple’s iPad trademark claims in China, Proview has now brought the drama to California, filing a lawsuit on the tablet maker’s home turf.

Reuters is reporting that Proview International Holdings Ltd. has expanded their iPad trademark dispute with Apple from a number of Chinese cities to Silicon Valley -- and specifically, a new lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County that will surely create a new headache for the iPad maker.

As it turns out, the U.S. lawsuit was actually filed on February 17 and requests “an unspecified amount of damages.” Proview accuses Apple of misrepresenting themselves when they purchased the iPad trademark back in 2009 using a shell company called IP Application Development Ltd (iPAD, get it?). In other words, had Proview known the trademark was going to be used for a wildly popular tablet device from the world’s most valuable brand, they probably wouldn’t have sold the rights for a mere $55,000.

Legal experts seem to indicate that Proview won’t get very far with that defense, especially here in the U.S. where Apple has “a homeground advantage,” explains Shanghai-based Elliot Papageorgiou of Rouse Legal (China). Proview is also on borrowed time: The company recently filed for bankruptcy and faces being delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange if they can’t reverse their luck by the middle of 2012.

"Given the current timeline, Apple would have the greater impetus to come to settlement simply because the ability to disrupt shipments is more immediate than the pressure faced by Proview and its potential delisting," Papageorgiou said.

Meanwhile, Proview’s efforts to block Apple from selling the iPad on their home turf in China will heat up next week, with a February 29 court date to hear an appeal by Apple over a December decision that went in Proview’s favor.

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(Image courtesy of The Next Web)