2015考研英语阅读商标欺诈

　　Trademark bullying

　　商标欺诈

　　Shut your kale-hole

　　闭上你的臭嘴

　　What s in a name, anyway?

　　无论如何，商标中能有什么呢?

　　CHICK-FIL-A sells an average of nine sandwiches per second at its roughly 1,600 restaurants.

　　托莱多的约1600家餐厅每秒平均卖出9个三明治。

　　Bo Muller-Moore paints T-shirts in the garage next to his house in Montpelier, Vermont.

　　家在蒙彼利埃的Bo Muller-Moore在其车库里染印T恤衫。

　　In 2011 Chick-fil-A s sales were more than $4 billion; Mr Muller-Moore estimatesthat his were $40,000.

　　托莱多2001年的销售额超过40亿美元;而Muller-Moore估计其销售额仅有40000美元。

　　Nonetheless, the slogan screened on his shirts- Eat More Kale , initially made in 2001 as afavour for a local farmer, whose kale crop had a bumper year-caught the humourless eyes ofChick-fil-A s lawyers.

　　尽管如此， Muller-Moore染印在T恤衫上的短语 Eat More Kale 还是为托莱多无趣的律师们所关注。

　　They had sent him a cease-and-desist letter in 2006, claiming his slogan was too close totheir client s Eat Mor Chikin .

　　他们向Muller-Moore发出了 勒令停止通知函 ，声称Muller-Moore的宣传语同托莱多的宣传语 Eat MorChikin 意思太相近。

　　Really?

　　事实真是如此吗?

　　The letter does not cite a single person whom the slogan has confused.

　　信函并未列举出任何一个为此宣传语Eat More Kale所误导的人。

　　Besides, one entity sells food, the other clothing; only the profoundly stoned or derangedwould try to eat a T-shirt or wear a chicken sandwich.

　　此外，他们一个是卖快餐的，另一个是卖衣服的;只有那些酩酊大醉、精神错乱的人才会吃T恤衫或者穿鸡肉三明治。

　　But Mr Muller-Moore is not the only small entrepreneur to have caught the attention of a bigfirm s trademark hawks.

　　然而，Muller-Moore先生并非唯一一个受到大型企业商标权恐吓的私营业主。

　　In 2009 the company that makes Monster energy drinks demanded that Vermont s Rock ArtBrewery stop calling its barley wine Vermonster .

　　在2009年，生产怪物能量饮料的公司要求福蒙特州的啤酒厂Rock Art停止使用 Vermonster 作为其高酒精啤酒的名称。

　　Last year Tootsie Roll Industries, which makes chewy sweets, filed suit against the maker ofa roll-up shoe called Footzyrolls.

　　去年，生产咀嚼软糖的小脚趾圈公司对生产roll-up shoe的厂商Footzyrolls提起诉讼。

　　And in 2009 The North Face, an outdoor-clothing company, sued a much smaller clothingcompany that had decided to call itself The South Butt.

　　在2009年，户外服装公司The North Face对一个非常小的服装公司提起诉讼，因为其自称The SouthButt。

　　Chick-fil-A insists it has to protect its trademark.

　　托莱多声称要坚决保护它的商标。

　　But its idea of self-defence looks to others like bullying.

　　然而，这一行为对于其他人来说更像恐吓、威胁。

　　The firm is protecting its trademark not from a crafty restaurateur hoping to piggyback onits fame, but from a kale farmer and a Neolithic stencil-artist in Vermont.

　　它所谓的商标侵权者不是借其名声的狡猾的餐馆老板，而是风蒙特州的一个种植羽衣甘蓝的农民和一个民间模板艺术家。

　　Also, Chick-fil-A seems to be claiming ownership of the phrase eat more , which is a bitgreedy.

　　而且，托莱多似乎宣称其是 eat more 词组的所有者。这一行为显得太贪婪了。

　　Mr Muller-Moore is fighting back. He has taken his campaign to Facebook and Kickstarter,where he and a co-producer are trying to raise funds for a documentary called A DefiantDude .

　　Muller-Moore先生对托莱多的起诉予以回击。他同其合伙人在Facebook和Kickstarter试图为一个名为 野蛮的家伙 的纪录片募集资金。

　　Rock Art Brewery similarly defended itself, not in a court of law, where deep-pocketedcorporations enjoy an enormous advantage, but in the court of public opinion.

　　Rock Art啤酒厂同样予以反击，不是在 自古衙门朝南开，有理无钱莫进来 的法庭，而是在公众舆论的平台。

　　It worked.

　　这一方式奏效了。

　　After boycotts and negative publicity, Monster s makers agreed to drop the matterprovided that Rock Art did not start making energy drinks.

　　在收到抵制和负面的名声影响后，怪物饮料生产商同意撤销诉讼，条件是Rock Art不在生产能量饮料。

　　Mr Muller-Moore claims to have received thousands of supportive letters.

　　Muller-Moore先生声称收到了无数的声援信。

　　Hundreds of people have pledged to fund his film.

　　许多人对其给予了资金援助。

　　Chick-fil-A may end up eating more crow.

　　托莱多最终可能会以失败告终。