Register That Funky Chinese Name White Boy
Title for this post comes from the soul-funk song, "Play That Funky Music White Boy," that was a big hit (at least among my friends) when I was in High School." A CLB t-shirt (if and only if such t-shirts are ever made) to the first person who can name both the group that did that song and the picture on the album cover that contained it.
Anyway, a loyal reader e-mailed me a story the other day regarding how Sony Ericsson has so far failed in its efforts to buy the Chinese trademark for the name "Suo Ai," which is frequently used as a Chinese language short form for Sony Ericsson. Seems a Guangzhou based MP3 player maker by the name of Suo Ai Digital Technology Company Limited filed for this Chinese character trademark in 2003 in Class 9, covering digital products and cell phones and has been using it on its MP3 players ever since. It all got me to thinking how common it is for non-Chinese companies to fail to think about Mandarin (and other China language) versions of their trademarks and tradenames.
Since Japanese company Sony merged with Swedish company Ericsson back in 2001, it would appear Sony-Ericsson made a mistake by not registering this trademark before Suo Ai Digital got to it. This is not the first, nor will this likely be the last, time where a foreign company has failed to sufficiently protect its Chinese nicknames/brandnames by filing for them. Starbucks' failing to register the Xingbake name quickly comes to mind. Yet at the same time, it is somewhat understandable how Sony-Ericsson could have allowed this to happen as it is oftentimes difficult to know whether your non-Chinese name will ever get translated into Chinese or turned into a "Chinafied" nickname and if that does happen, the form it will take.
In the end, it comes down to a cost benefit analysis and I estimate that around twenty percent of our clients for whom we do trademark work end up filing for a Mandarin language trademark, and around five percent do so in another China language (typically Cantonese) as well. If the name of your company is something easily translated (something like Fisher Price, or General Motors) and your company is going to be selling its goods into China, than a Mandarin trademark probably makes sense. But if your tradename has no meaning (something like Aptiva or Zerona) and your goods are being made in China strictly for export, the need to register a Mandarin trademark will usually be considerably less. Nonetheless, these are things that should always at least be considered.
Word is Sony-Ericsson was offering between $2.5 and $4 million for the Suo Ai name, quite a bit more than it would have cost them to have registered that name back in 2001.
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Comments
The group, Wild Cherry, the album "Wild Cherry" featured a pair of red lips with a cherry in the mouth. I have to thank all those years at WKVR, Juniata College radio, for that one. It should be pointed out that the song was covered by and often mistaken a KC and the Sunshine Band song.
Regarding names, James Fallows posted a while back on the odd use of some names, Mcdonalds for example, which in mandarin is pronounced mai dang lao, because when the food giant moved to the mainland, they took their already established Chinese character name 麥當勞 with them which in Catonese is pronounced mak dong lo.
Posted by: Andy Scott | August 5, 2007 8:06 PM
Andy Scott --
We have a winner. Beijing Boyce came in 48 minutes after you, but on another post. Congratulations. I do have plans for a t-shirt and when I get it done, you will most certainly be on the list.
Posted by: China Law Blog | August 5, 2007 9:07 PM
I'd have to say "Wild Cherry" in 1976. The cover is a hot set of wet lips with a cherry in them. I'm white and funky. Send me a shirt!
Posted by: corbett | August 5, 2007 9:11 PM
corbett --
You may be white and funky, but you ain't gettin' no shirt as you are actually only the third person to check in with correct answers. Thanks for playing.
Posted by: China Law Blog | August 5, 2007 9:15 PM
Shucks...
And now I'll have that tune running through my head for the next 48 hours.
Boyce
Posted by: boyce | August 6, 2007 12:33 AM
Ok, I'm a few days late on this.... but I knew 'Wild Cherry' too, really I did. I'm not sure how, but I did...
A follow-up question for your readers:
4 or 5 years ago I heard a Chinese cover of this song on the radio. Well, it was using the same tune, at least. A decidedly surreal moment for a China-newbie, such as I then was! I asked the Chinese friend who was driving what the lyrics were, and he said, "Oh, I can't follow it - they're singing in Taiwanese dialect."
Does anyone have any idea what that band/song was? And what is the favoured putonghua translation for "funky"??
Posted by: froog | August 6, 2007 2:24 AM
I'm glad this point came up in another post.
I was recently shopping at Parkson's, a pretty well known, big department store here in Chongqing that is also spread around the country. My girlfriend wanted some sporty shorts for our upcoming trip to Qingdao. We stop in Nike, Adidas, and then through the Chinese brands. At the end, we see a brand that blows me away: Qiao Dan, which for the un-initiated, is the Chinese name for Michael Jordan. To make things worse, their logo was a silhouetted basketball player calling to mind both the Jumpman logo and the NBA logo. I asked my girlfriend, "When you see this company, do you think it is affiliated with Jordan?" She said yes, and posited that most Chinese people would naturally assume so and then assume its quality to be higher because of it.
Has any person gone so far as to copyright their Mandarin name in China? Does Jordan/Nike have any clue that this is even happening?
Posted by: Matt in Chongqing | August 6, 2007 6:22 AM
From the linked starbucks article,
"Kentucky Fried Chicken has a Taiwanese competitor whose logo is so similar it includes an Asian-looking Colonel Sanders, minus the eyeglasses and beard."
Not sure if that's attributed to you or the newspaper, but out of curiosity, is the "Taiwanese competitor" Yonghe Soy Milk King? For comparison, see http://www.chinesesavvy.com/savvy/article/chinesesigns/chinesesigns_003.html
In my opinion, the logos aren't that similar...and the likelihood of consumer confusion is pretty slim considering the disparity in products and phonetics.
Posted by: hlm | August 6, 2007 7:42 AM
I will never forget hearing the Chinese version of Play that funky music white boy in a 7-11 in Taipei. Pretty hilarious.
Posted by: Bart Motes | August 6, 2007 8:19 AM
It's probably worth noting that make sure your Chinese names are actually named by Chinese native speakers. Guge (Google) made fatal mistake in picking the Chinese name. When the name Guge was introduced, the Chinese blogsphere was not impressed and the name has so far fail to catch on.
Posted by: David Li | August 7, 2007 6:59 AM