Grand Fromage posted:

Go on...

JaucheCharly posted:

Well, it's better than intentionally making GBS threads himself on the spot, but wth.

Sheep-Goats posted:

Crafty

Invisible Handjob posted:

This is why we no longer do gooncons.

quote:

China's supreme court has ruled in favour of US basketball legend Michael Jordan in a trademark dispute. The People's Supreme Court ruled a Chinese sportswear company must stop using the characters for Jordan's name, read as Qiaodan in Chinese.

Qiaodan Sports registered the name more than a decade ago but Jordan's lawyers said it built its business around his Chinese name without his permission.

Jordan has welcomed the decision which overturns previous rulings against him. "I am happy that the Supreme People's Court has recognized the right to protect my name through its ruling in the trademark cases," he said in a statement sent to the BBC. "Chinese consumers deserve to know that Qiaodan Sports and its products have no connection to me."

"Nothing is more important than protecting your own name, and today's decision shows the importance of that principle."

The basketball star first started legal action against Qiaodan Sports in 2012. His team argued that Qiaodan's trademarks had damaged his legal rights to use his name and asked the court to invalidate more than 60 trademarks used by the company.

The court agreed Qiaodan Sports had violated trademark law and its registration of the name should be revoked.

But his win is only a partial victory.

While the company cannot use Jordan's Chinese name, the court upheld a ruling allowing it to use the Romanized version of Qiaodan, pronounced "Chee-ow-dahn."

A Shanghai court is yet to hear a separate naming rights case.

Pirate Radar posted:

On the way home I got in a shouting match in the street over whether "Polish" is a real ethnicity or was made up for the purpose of sneaking Slavs into Britain to steal jobs.

oohhboy posted:

Jordan won his case in China?!? oh he only sort of won.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38246196

quote:

Adidos and Hotwind? In China, Brands Adopt Names to Project Foreign Flair


BEIJING — Chrisdien Deny, a retail chain with more than 500 locations across China, sells belts, shoes and clothing with an “Italian style” — and a logo with a font similar to Christian Dior’s.

Helen Keller, named for the deaf-blind American humanitarian, offers trendy sunglasses and classic spectacles at over 80 stores, with the motto “you see the world, the world sees you.”

Frognie Zila, a clothing brand sold in 120 stores in China, boasts that its “international” selection is “one of the first choices of successful politicians and businessmen” and features pictures on its website of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Venetian canals.

Eager to glaze their products with the sheen of international sophistication, many homegrown retail brands have hit upon a similar formula: Choose a non-Chinese name that gives the impression of being foreign.

“You could call it fawning on foreign powers,” said Cheng Wei, 37, who was recently at a Beijing mall buying winter clothes at Chocoolate, a Hong Kong casual wear outlet, where Chinese characters were absent from all but one store logo.

At a time when manufacturing is cooling and real estate is slumping, consumption is a bright spot in the Chinese economy. In the first 11 months of 2014, retail sales grew by 12 percent over the previous year to 23.66 trillion renminbi, or $3.8 trillion, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The government considers consumer spending so vital that Prime Minister Li Keqiang in November declared, “Let the people be able to consume, dare to consume and be willing to consume,” according to the state news agency Xinhua.

But some Chinese appear loath to spend their disposable income on locally produced fashions.

“Buy Chinese brands? Never,” said Fu Rao, 20, a university student, who was browsing the clothes at the Japanese outlet store Snidel in an upscale Beijing mall one recent evening. Ms. Fu complained that Chinese products were shoddily made and lacking in style. “Foreign stuff is so much better,” she said.

As Chinese retail companies try to attract consumers, mystifying maladaptations of English have spread across the country’s storefronts, shopping bags and clothing labels. Wanko, Hotwind, Scat, Orgee and Marisfrolg (the L is silent) all sell clothing. A sponsor of China’s national golf team is the apparel chain Biemlfdlkk.

If Chinese companies have stumbled in the branding race, that is because few ever gave it much thought. For years, as China’s economic growth soared into the double digits, branding was largely considered a low-priority marketing decision left to top executives far more concerned with the next product introduction than with building long-term value, said Joel Backaler, author of “China Goes West,” a book that charts the efforts of Chinese companies seeking to build international brands.

In China, many Western brands have chosen a Mandarin-language name that will convey relevant qualities to consumers, like Coca-Cola, whose Chinese brand name — Kekoukele — translates as Tasty Fun. Other foreign brands such as Cadillac, or Ka di la ke in Mandarin characters, stick with a phonetic transliteration that has no Chinese meaning, thus signaling their foreign cachet.

Some local companies have gone the same route, employing phonetic if meaningless brand names to obtain a foreign-sounding flair, even though they are actually homegrown.

The golf apparel brand Biemlfdlkk, sold in over 450 Chinese stores, goes by Biyinlefen in Mandarin, using four characters that translate literally as “compare music rein fragrant.” While the name may be ambiguous by design, it can make creating a uniform brand identity difficult. A Biemlfdlkk saleswoman in the southern city of Guangzhou explained, “It’s a German name.” An employee at another Biemlfdlkk shop had a different explanation: “It’s the name of a French designer.”

Rather than create distinct branding, other local companies have chosen simply to mimic well-known foreign brands. “Chinese brands copy because they believe it enables them to get an easy, quick win,” said Vladimir Djurovic, president of the Labbrand Consulting Company in Shanghai. “They play on the confusion.”

The knockoff casual wear brand Clio Coddle has a green crocodile logo reminiscent of Lacoste. Across China, sneakers are emblazoned with Adidos, Hike, Cnoverse and Fuma — featuring a smoking puma — and there are SQNY batteries and Johnnie Worker Red Labial whiskey.

Reached by phone, a Chrisdien Deny representative denied that the brand was trying to piggyback on the reputation of Christian Dior, which has dozens of stores in China. “I’ve never heard of that company,” said the representative, who declined to give her name. Christian Dior declined to comment.

Chrisdien Deny has no Chinese-language brand name and is a subsidiary of Huayu Group Holdings Ltd., based in Guangzhou. Huayu claims to be the Far East distributor of the “century-old European brand” Chrisdien Deny, according to its employee recruiting materials.

Chinese brand names have stoked international controversy in the past. One of China’s most popular toothpaste brands is known as Darlie in English but Hei Ren, or Black People, in Mandarin. In 1985, Colgate-Palmolive bought 50 percent of the Hong Kong company that owned the brand, which was then called Darkie in English. Its logo was a grinning minstrel in blackface wearing a top hat, tuxedo and bow tie.

After three years of pressure by African-Americans, religious groups and shareholders who found the brand derogatory, Colgate made the logo more racially ambiguous and changed the English name to Darlie, though the Mandarin remains unchanged. “Colgate is committed to demonstrating respect to all people,” the company has said in a statement on its website. “We understand that there are different perspectives on the Chinese language brand, and we continue to consider these perspectives in our discussions” with the Hong Kong founders.

Helen Keller glasses would probably have a hard time selling overseas, too. Though the company’s website includes a lengthy biography of Helen Keller, it omits all mention of the disabilities she worked hard to overcome.

Reached by phone, a brand manager found nothing problematic about the omission. “So she’s blind and deaf — her personal shortcomings are not related to the spirit of our brand,” said the woman, who gave only her surname, Jiang. “These products help you love and protect your eyes. Why would that be offensive?”

Facing rising labor costs and increased competition, businesses are now thinking more carefully about brand identity, analysts say. “Yesterday’s strategy is no longer effective,” said Mr. Backaler, the “China Goes West” author.

Labbrand has developed over 200 brand names for Western companies entering the Chinese market and Chinese companies looking to build global brands. Labbrand’s president, Mr. Djurovic, said the company’s work creating brand names in the Latin alphabet has increased significantly in recent years, suggesting that Chinese companies are beginning to realize they cannot just transliterate their Mandarin brand names or mimic Western ones if they hope to win the loyalties of customers, not just in China but around the world.

So far, only a few domestic brands have succeeded abroad, mostly in high tech. One notable exception is Haier, the world’s top electronic home appliance brand for the last five years, according to the market research firm Euromonitor International.

The Chinese sportswear maker Li Ning, based in Beijing, has not been as fortunate. Despite opening stores in the United States and spending heavily on American advertising, the company reported net losses of $75 million in the first half of the year, three times as much as its net loss in 2013.

At home, one of the toughest challenges for local brands is Chinese consumers themselves. Suby Zhou, 27, a property rights manager, said she did not see much difference between local and foreign brands. “Everything’s so international now,” she said, while shopping at a Uniqlo outlet in Beijing.

Still, the power of foreign branding has left an indelible impression. Ms. Zhou could easily rattle off foreign brands she liked, among them Zara and H&M, but when asked about favored Chinese brands she drew a blank. “I can’t think of any,” she said.

Correction: January 1, 2015
An article on Saturday about Chinese companies that adopt variations of international brand names described incorrectly the font of the logo of Chrisdien Deny, a Chinese apparel chain. It is similar to that of Christian Dior, but it is not the same.

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

gently caress it i guess i'll have to post this again:


https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/...-gibberish.html

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

I prefer Black Labial.

oohhboy posted:

Jordan won his case in China?!? oh he only sort of won.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38246196

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

gently caress it i guess i'll have to post this again:


https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/...-gibberish.html

Haier posted:

If anyone is using Wechat on their computers, they update came available a couple days ago and it allows translation now with a right-click instead of having to use your phone. So dumb it took them years to think of adding it. It also translates differently than how it does on the phone.

rear end cobra posted:

Mildly related: is all of South Korea still basically forced to use internet explorer 6 or whatever?

Invisible Handjob posted:

Oh poo poo I never knew they finally came out with a PC version, thanks for the heads up I'm downloading it now

I better not have to scan this QR code every time I restart my computer

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

gently caress it i guess i'll have to post this again:


https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/...-gibberish.html

quote:

As Chinese retail companies try to attract consumers, mystifying maladaptations of English have spread across the country’s storefronts, shopping bags and clothing labels. Wanko, Hotwind, Scat, Orgee and Marisfrolg (the L is silent) all sell clothing. A sponsor of China’s national golf team is the apparel chain Biemlfdlkk.

Jimmy Little Balls posted:

Theres 5 or 6 different shops all with slightly hosed up spellings of new balance that are really common, new barlun is the one I see most often. Back home new balance was seen as the I can't afford nike/adidas trainers brand so I'm not sure why they are so popular here were showing off how much money you have is the most important part of society.

Haier posted:

quote:

It was commissioned by Star Energy Investment Group, whose CEO, Su Shaojun, reportedly compared the opening of a theme park based around the sinking of the ship with children’s animated films:

“It's not like a certain country owns this thing. Just like the US can make 'Kung Fu Panda' and that's very common. Same with 'Mulan'.”

He added the Titanic represented something of “universal value”.

Pon de Bundy posted:

what kinda sad boy milk drinking goon turns down a free Thai prostitute is the real question

Jimmy Little Balls posted:

Theres 5 or 6 different shops all with slightly hosed up spellings of new balance that are really common, new barlun is the one I see most often. Back home new balance was seen as the I can't afford nike/adidas trainers brand so I'm not sure why they are so popular here were showing off how much money you have is the most important part of society.

caberham posted:

Wait wait it's not ironwood mall anymore? Is the Burger King still there?

I was so pissed off that the one on 3 road closed down