Facebook打贏中國商標搶注案

Facebook has won a Chinese trademark case against a company that registered the brand name “face book”, in a sign that Beijing attitudes are softening towards the world’s largest social networking site, which is blocked to China’s 700m internet users.

Facebook在中國贏得一家公司搶注“face book”商標案，表明北京對這家全球最大社交網站的態度開始軟化。由於Facebook在中國被屏蔽，中國7億網民無法登陸該網站。

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, has been at the forefront of a charm offensive apparently aimed at prying open the Chinese market.

Facebook創始人馬克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)一直積極對中國發動魅力攻勢，顯然爲了撬開中國市場。

As well as trying to master the Chinese language, Mr Zuckerberg has entertained China’s chief censor at his San Francisco home, met the head of the ruling Communist party’s propaganda apparatus and jogged through Tiananmen Square on a badly polluted day.

除了努力學習中文，扎克伯格還在舊金山的家中款待中國審查機構負責人，與執政的中國共產黨的宣傳機關負責人會晤，甚至在污染嚴重的某日在天安門廣場上慢跑。

Any decision to unblock Facebook in China would probably come with strict conditions, in light of how useful the site proved to pro-democracy protesters during the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. Other foreign internet companies allowed to operate in China, such as LinkedIn, comply with the country’s draconian censorship regime.

鑑於2011年“阿拉伯之春”(Arab Spring)革命時Facebook對親民主示威者起到的巨大幫助，想要解除中國對Facebook的屏蔽，很可能會附帶嚴格的條件。其他獲准在華經營的外國互聯網企業——如領英(LinkedIn)——都遵守中國嚴厲的審查制度。

According to a lawyer involved in the case, the Beijing High Court ruled that the Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks Factory, based in southern Guangdong province, should not have been allowed to register the “face book” trademark in 2014. The factory produces food including potato chips and canned vegetables.

據參與商標搶注案的一名律師透露，北京高院裁定中山市珠江飲料廠(Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks Factory)不應在2014年獲准註冊“face book”商標。這家位於廣東省的工廠主要生產土豆片、蔬菜罐頭等食品。

Under Chinese law, a multinational with a globally recognised brand must prove that its trademark is also well known within China.

根據中國法律，擁有全球知名品牌的跨國企業必須證明其商標在中國也廣爲人知。

Last week a Beijing court ruled that an accessories manufacturer, Xintong Tiandi Technology, was entitled to use the trademark “IPHONE” despite the widespread popularity of Apple’s iPhones. Apple has said that it will appeal against the case in China’s highest court.

上週，北京一家法院裁定配件廠商新通天地科技有限公司(Xintong Tiandi Technology)有權使用“IPHONE”商標，儘管蘋果(Apple)的iPhone已成爲熱門品牌。蘋果表示將向中國最高法院提起上訴。

“If it was illegal for us to register, why were we allowed to do so in the first place?” asked one factory executive, Liu Hongqun, who said he had not received the court’s final ruling. “If Facebook has such an influential brand globally, why can’t Chinese consumers access its website?”

中山市珠江飲料廠營銷總經理劉紅羣表示：“如果我們的註冊是非法的，爲什麼當初允許我們這麼做呢？”他說自己還沒有收到法院最終判決。“如果Facebook是一個全球知名品牌，爲什麼中國消費者不能訪問它的網站呢？”

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Facebook沒有回覆記者的置評請求。

Facebook has focused on trying to recruit Chinese advertisers looking to promote their products abroad, rather than luring Chinese users. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, said on the first-quarter earnings call that their business selling to marketers in China was “really strong”, giving the example of how Air China used Facebook to advertise new flight routes including one from Mumbai to Beijing.

Facebook迄今聚焦於招攬那些想要將產品推廣到海外的中國廣告商，而不是吸引中國用戶。首席運營官謝里爾•桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)在第一季度財報電話會議中表示，對中國市場營銷者的業務出售“非常強勁”，她舉例稱，中國國航(Air China)運用Faceboo宣傳孟買到北京等新航線。

Although Facebook is blocked on the mainland, both it and Mr Zuckerberg are well known in China and internet users there can access the site with the help of technically illegal virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow them to circumvent the country’s “Great Firewall”. Other blocked sites, such as Twitter, are also widely used in China via VPNs.

雖然Facebook在中國被屏蔽，但該網站和扎克伯克在中國衆所周知，中國網民在技術上非法的虛擬專用網(VPN)的幫助下，可以規避“防火長城”(Great Firewall)訪問Facebook。通過VPN工具，Twitter等其他被屏蔽的的網站在中國也獲得廣泛使用。

In another instance of disputed copycatting, a Chinese athletic clothing company called Uncle Martian has denied mimicking the much better known Under Armour brand, despite having a very similar logo.

在另一起爭議性的山寨事件中，中國運動服裝公司Uncle Martian否認模仿知名品牌Under Armour，雖然兩家公司標識極其相似。