China's trademark system is a minefield of murky rules and opportunistic "trademark squatters" that even the world's biggest companies and their highly-paid lawyers find hard to navigate.

But unlike "trademark squatters" who register names of products already sold abroad and then demand foreign companies pay for the Chinese rights, Proview registered the iPad name long before Apple planned its phone.

The opening sealed a victory for the company in a fight with a trademark squatter who had kept Starbucks from coming to Russia for more than three years, just as a coffeehouse culture was emerging here.

Then in 2002, as the economy was picking up again, a former car alarm salesman and trademark squatter, Sergei A. Zuykov, filed a request with Russian authorities to cancel the chain’s trademark because it had not been used in commerce in Russia.

A tall, strapping 39-year-old former car alarm salesman turned trademark squatter, Mr. Zuykov has stalled Starbucks' entry into one of the fastest growing retail markets in Europe while competitors, both homegrown and international brands, have been springing up like mushrooms after the rain.