德尔 vs. 戴尔: Dell Loses Trademark Suit in China

[DavyBUK]

This comes from August but has a little added about transliteration and a couple of big company blunders in China and Taiwan.....



According to The Beijing News, via Rich Kuslan's blog, Dell lost a suit against a research institute over the fact that its name sounds too much like Dell's transliterated name.

Transliterated?

If this term is new to you, it is "phonetic translation" -- such as creating a name in Chinese that, when spoken, sounds just like your brand name when spoken in English. It is especially important that the resulting text convey a positive meaning -- or at least not a negative meaning.

Any multinational that has long-term consumer market aspirations in China needs to transliterate its name so it can better promote itself -- and better protect itself. And you can register this transliterated name as a Chinese-language URL.

But transliteration can be a very tricky business. Pacific Epoch writes briefly about this Dell suit; the two names in question certainly appear similar in English -- De Er vs. Dai Er -- but not too similar, according to the powers that be.

Sometimes a company will mis-translate as it rushes to enter a market. KFC and Pepsi have provided two humorous examples. According to this article on the art of transliteration: KFC’s “finger-lickin’ good” slogan entered the China market as “eat your fingers off”. Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” spent a short time in Taiwan as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead” before the F&B giant went into damage control."

Such is the crazy, complex world of transliteration and IP protection in the Wild Wild East.



http://goingglobal.corante.com/archi...t_in_china.php

[DavyBUK]

Original blog article mentioned is as follows:

Dell Loses China Trademark Suit

The Beijing News reports that Dell has lost its trademark suit against a Foshan (广东佛山) research institute, which had in 1997 registered a trademark for “德尔,” a transliteration of the Dell name. Dell has long since made use of another Chinese name "戴尔", which, to my ears, sounds rather more attractive. The article in full reads:

戴尔起诉要求撤销“德尔”商标

一中院经审理维持商评委裁定，戴尔一审败诉

　　本报讯（记者吕佳瑜 通讯员郭京霞）戴尔公司以其“DELL”商标的中文译名与广东一家研究所注册的“德尔”商标相近似为由，要求国家工商总局商标评审委员会撤销“德尔”商标未果，遂将商评委诉上法庭。北京市一中院近日作出一审判决，驳回戴尔公司的诉讼请求。

　　1997年2月，广东佛山兴禅高新技术应用研究所申请注册了“德尔”商标，指定使用的商品为“计算机，电子记分器等”。戴尔公司认为该商标侵犯了戴尔公司的在先企业名称权，于2000年11月29日向商评委提出申请，请求撤销该商标。

　　戴尔公司称，其在1991年开始陆续在中国申请注册了“DELL”商标。其产品大规模进入中国市场前就选择“德尔”一词作为其驰名商标 “DELL”的中文音译商标，同时“德尔电脑股份有限公司”也是“DELL”最初进入中国市场时正式使用的商号。2005年，商评委经审理作出裁定，维持了广东的“德尔”商标。

　　商评委裁定后，戴尔公司不服，向一中院提起诉讼，请求法院撤销商评委的决定，撤销争议商标注册。

　　一中院经审理认为，商评委的决定维持争议商标的结论正确，审理程序亦符合法律规定，驳回原告戴尔公司的诉讼请求。