Nine Chinese writers sued Apple Inc for violating copyright and demanded compensation totaling 12 million yuan ($1.9 million).
The move was the latest attempt by writers to protect their rights online as more readers turned to e-books, lawyers said.
Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court has accepted the lawsuit jointly filed by Chinese writers like Han Han, Li Chengpeng and He Ma, an official at the court said on Jan 9.
"The court is examining documents and materials provided by those writers, as each of them has his or her compensation requests," court official Li Zhitao said, adding the first trial may open after the Spring Festival, which falls on Jan 23.
The writers, claiming Apple allows its users to download pirated books through its platform App Store, are determined to fight for their rights, says Bei Zhicheng, an executive of Writers' Union, an organization established in July 2011 to safeguard Chinese writers' copyright online.
Bei said Apple's lack of a positive response to the writers' complaint made them take the case to court.
The company - whose innovative products including iPhone and iPad changed the IT industry - had said the writers failed to provide enough materials and the e-mail they sent in July 2011 was not in line with the format Apple required, according to Bei.
"That's the typical reply we got from Apple, and to be precise, we received similar replies from Apple three times," he said.
China has at least 15 million iPhone users and the country is now Apple's second largest market.
