The Language of Small Business Texts and Vocabulary Training (for students of Economics) Part 2. Учебное пособие

Beating the Pirates

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO REGISTERING A

TRADE OR SERVICE MARK

1.Consider whether the mark will distinguish your product from another. Is it similar to another mark? Could it confuse consumers about the nature of the product or service? Even if the mark is an ordinary word or name, do you believe that your reputation has built it up into a distinguishing feature for your product or service?

2.Apply to have the mark filed at the Registry. Include the required fee and a description of the goods on which your mark will be used. This must be done in accordance with the rules laid down by the Registry.

3.The Registry considers the application; if there are any objections you will be told, so that you can decide if the situation can be redeemed or if you should choose another mark and start again.

4.After about fifteen months from the application, the Registry will advertise the mark in the Trade Marks Journal. If there is no opposition, the trade or service mark is registered.

GETTING HELP AND ADVICE

There are a number of organizations and associations which inventors and designers can join. These provide publications and hold meetings.

To get help with the actual process of patenting an invention or registering a design or trade mark, you can approach a patent agent or trade mark agent, who should be a member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents or the Institute of Trade Mark Agents.

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Help and advice may also be available from local innovation centres. Inventors should beware of organizations which demand a sum of money before any help is given. And the Innovation Centre at the Design Council offers lots of services for innovators.

The Language of Small Business

Definitions of Terms

Patent, LAW – in Britain, a special right given by the Crown to an inventor to be the only person to make and sell, or to authorize others to make and sell a newly-invented machine or process. In law, the life of a patent is 16 years, but in certain cases this can be extended by five or ten years.

Patent agent LAW – a professional person, trained in the law relating to patents and trademarks and registered with the government. He acts for persons such as inventors in the highly complicated process of obtaining a patent for a new invention.

Patentee LAW – a person to whom a patent has been officially granted or in whose name a patent is officially registered.

Copyright LAW – a legal right, possessed by no one else, of publishing or reproducing a literary (of books and writing) artistic or musical work, and of preventing anyone else from doing so. The first owner of a copyright is the person who creates the work (brings it into existence), e.g. the writer of a book or article. Copyright can be assigned, but only in writing. It normally lasts for the life of the person who creates the work and for 50 years after his death

Copyright notice – the sign ©, followed by the name of the owner of the copyright and the year of first publication, appearing usu. on the back of the title-page, in all books claiming copyright protection.

Know-how (colloq.) – special knowledge or skill; knowing how to do something difficult, esp. in planning and starting something new, such as a new process, or new machinery; or in overcoming some difficulty, such as stopping a fire in an oil-well Syn.: expertise; expertness.

Trademark LAW@COM. – a special mark that is placed on a particular brand of article or commodity to distinguish it from similar goods sold by other producers. In Britain, new trademarks

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must be first approved by a government department and, if approved, they are registered at the Patent Office. A registered trademark becomes the property of the person or organization in whose name it is registered, and no other producer may use it without the owner’s permission. If the trademark consists only of a name, it is called a registered trade-name.

Also: trade-mark; trade-name.

Abbr. TM

Brand COM@IND. – originally an owner’s mark, made by burning, on cattle, etc. but now a maker’s name, trade-mark or sign, usu. officially registered and protected, put on goods to make it easy for buyers to recognize the make or quality. Local brand, a brand of product sold locally, usu. in the area in which it is manufactured. National brand, one sold all over the country.

Own brand COM.@IND. – a brand of goods, usu. in the grocery trade, bearing the private brand mark of a large retailer. It may be made specially for him or he may buy the goods unmarked directly from the manufacturer of a nationally advertised brand. The two articles are usu. exactly alike, but the own-brand article can be sold more cheaply because it does not have to bear the heavy cost of national advertising.

Syn.: house brand; dealer’s brand; private brand

Logogram IND.@COM. – a single sign or picture representing a whole word, esp. a name, often used as a trademark.

Syn.: logograph.

Abbr. Logo

Charter LAW – a document by a state formality giving certain special rights and powers to a person or organization, e.g. the royal charter given by the King or Queen to a chartered company

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such as the British, French and Dutch East India Companies and the British South Africa Company.

Definitions of Terms

Товарный знак – имя, термин, знак, символ, рисунок или их сочетание, предназначенное для идентификации то- варов или услуг конкретного продавца или производителя и дифференциации их от товаров и услуг конкуренции.

Патентная лицензия – разрешение, выдаваемое патен- товладетелем – лицензиаром другому лицу или фирме- лицензиату на промышленное и коммерческое использование изобретения в течение указанного срока за определенное воз- награждение.

Авторское право – часть национального гражданского права и раздел международного частного права, регулирую- щий права авторов произведений науки, литературы и искус- ства; носит строго территориальный характер и признается действительным в другой стране только в случае заключения между этими двумя государствами договора о признании и охране соответствующих прав или на началах взаимности.

For Discussion

1.Why is it said that the Eureka Syndrome can play a very small part in the success of business and what is a much more important factor?

2.Explain the statement: «You may need to educate customers».

3.«Carrying out effective marketing is the best protection». Why?

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4.«Industrial application of an invention is absolutely necessary for patent purposes». Dwell on it.

5.Why does an inventor have to keep on paying fees for his patent?

6.What are the main steps in obtaining a patent?

7.Can a design be protected? What does the design right mean?

8.In which cases can a design be registered?

9.Explain the meaning of a «logo».

10.What is the best way of beating the pirates – in one word?

Summary

1.Самым надежным и сильным способом защитить изо- бретение, проект, услугу или товарный знак является использование эффективного маркетинга, чтобы создать репутацию вашего продукта среди покупателей.

2.Патенты и их оформление могут обеспечить защиту, но один лишь закон не может этого гарантировать. Вы сами должны быть бдительны, чтобы проследить за соблюдени- емваших прав (чтобывашиправа не нарушались).

3.Когда речь идет об изобретениях и проектах, решающий фактор – это помнить, что необходимо содержать их в тайне до того, как вы подадите заявку на патент или реги- страцию проекта. Если вы не сделали этого, изобретение или проект больше не являются новыми, и вам не обеспе- чена защита.

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UNIT 5.

Getting the Message Across

Do you know what message you want to say about yourself, your product, your business? If you do not, how can your customers know? But knowing the message is not the end of the story. You have to decide who to send it to and how you are going to do it. If your message is not received loud and clear, your customers will not understand why they should buy from you or what it is they are getting. If they do not know the reason for buying, there will be no sales; if they have the wrong reason for buying, there will be dissatisfaction.

If you do not manage to communicate effectively the benefits of your product or service, your business will fail. The message, and getting it across, is crucial. But think carefully; the obvious solution is advertising, but advertising can swallow up a lot of money. There are other techniques that may work as well, and be cheaper.

THE MESSAGE: WHO, WHAT, HOW

WHO IS THE MESSAGE TO?

If you do not know what your target market is, you really do not deserve to succeed. You need this information at your fingertips from a very early stage of planning your business. Defining the target market necessitates sorting out its characteristics: the

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number, the location, the spending power, the class structure (if consumer).

Knowledge of the target market is needed to help refine the message and to select the most useful way of communicating the message to that particular group.

WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE?

You need to work out what message you want to send to customers. The two main constituents of your message are:

1.the long-term reputation you want to build for your product or business. This can be things like good quality, good service, reliability, quick service, good value and so on.

2.the specific message you want to get across now. Of course, this may simply be part of building your reputation, as above. Or it could be that you want to describe your product, giving customers the information they need to make a buying decision. Or it could be some specific offer you have available. Or it could be an item of good news about your business. The potential list is endless, but you must know the specific objective you want each communication to achieve.

HOW TO SEND THE MESSAGE

There are numerous ways of trying to get across your message to your target market. The trick is to select the most costeffective way of reaching your group. The cost of communication should be measured by what you have to spend to reach each potential customer or, if possible, by the number of sales leads each pound spent generates. Obviously, any cost-conscious small business has to look at the total figure, too. But it would not make good sense to plump for a way of sending the message on the grounds that the overall cost is least, if few customers are reached. What matters is how many possible buyers receive the message compared to the total expense.

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Very broadly, you can communicate with your customers by:

−speaking the message: this includes direct selling to customers, carrying out demonstrations, and attending exhibitions.

−writing the message: this includes advertisements, brochures and mail shots. These might be loosely called advertising and are described in this unit.

−implying the message: this does not give any specific details, but gives an impression about your business or product. For example, the quality and design of your letterhead, a business gift or van sign send an implied message to anyone who sees them. You should recognize that all ways of communicating the message, such as selling and advertising, also include an element of this. An advertisement does not simply have a picture and some words describing a benefit; the whole adds up to more than this, or it should. It should build up the general impression you want.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT ADVERTISING TO DO FOR YOU?

Sell more. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work quite like this. The direct link between spending money on advertising and generating more sales is rather difficult to establish; the linkage is there, but measurement is fraught with problems. Advertising is an investment decision, as are all the other ways of trying to get your message across. Spend money now in the hope of more sales later; but the outcome and the return are not certain.

Your advertising strategy should aim to help the potential customer from a state of ignorance about your product to a desire to purchase it. It should:

−get attention for your product;

−help them understand the product or service;

−get them to believe in the benefits;

−establish a desire for the product;

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