However, the majority of trademarks are not translated through transliteration alone but through the combination of transliteration, literal translation and adaptation. In practice, transliteration is more often used to design Chinese trademarks. Combination of transliteration, literal translation and adaptation With pleasant meaning and complying with Chinese culture and Chinese consumers’ psychology, the use of the Chinese trademark “宝马”on automobiles is appropriate and successful.4.Ĥ. Precious horses are typically rarely found and are said to be able to cover one thousand miles in a single day, and there are many poems in praise of precious horses in ancient Chinese language. In ancient China, the horse was an important traffic vehicle for people. The corresponding Chinese trademark of “BMW” is “宝马” whose Chinese pinyin is “BAO MA”, meaning “precious horse”. Some foreign trademarks have no practical meanings but are translated into Chinese characters or phrases with practical meanings according to their features, and the translations are creative, imaginative and impressive.įor instance, BMW has no practical meaning and is hard to translate into Chinese according to its pronunciation. For example, the corresponding Chinese trademark of “CADILLAC” is “凯迪拉克” whose Chinese pinyin is “KAI DI LA KE”, “ARMANI” is “阿玛尼” (“A MA NI”), “HILTON” is “希尔顿”(“XI ER DUN”), “BOEING” is “波音”(“BO YIN”), “SONY” is “索尼” ( “SUO NI”), and “SIEMENS” is “西门子”(“XI MEN ZI”). Most Chinese trademarks designed in this way do not have specific meanings. Transliteration is an approach by which the corresponding Chinese character is selected to form the Chinese trademark according to the pronunciation of the foreign trademark. And moreover, under some circumstances, a foreign trademark may have corresponding Chinese meaning, but the Chinese meaning lacks resounding and clear pronunciation or for other reasons, the company tends not to use its literal translation. However, Chinese trademarks which are directly translated according to their Chinese meanings only account for a small proportion among all trademarks, because a large proportion of foreign trademarks do not have practical meanings. For instance, the corresponding Chinese trademark of “APPLE” is “苹果” whose Chinese pinyin is PING GUO, “SHELL” is “壳牌”(QIAO PAI), and “VOLKSWAGEN” is “大众”(DA ZHONG). If a foreign trademark has practical meaning in its language, the corresponding Chinese character(s) containing the same meaning may be used as its Chinese trademark. Specifically speaking, foreign trademarks, typically Latin alphabet trademarks, are often translated into Chinese in the following approaches, And thirdly, from the perspective of advertising and marketing, the trademarks shall have novelty, convey pleasant meaning instead of unpleasant meaning, be attractive to consumers, and comply with the business features and market orientation. Secondly, from the perspective of linguistics, the trademarks shall follow grammatical rules, have resounding and clear pronunciations, and be succinct and easy to remember. In the translation of trademarks, the designed Chinese trademarks shall firstly conform to the requirement of the Chinese Trademark Law, including that trademarks shall have distinctive characteristics, not directly indicate the functions and features of the goods or services, and not violate the prohibitive provisions stipulated in the Trademark Law. One Chinese character may have different pronunciations, while different Chinese characters may have the same pronunciation, and many Chinese characters have similar pronunciations but with different tones. Each Chinese character can be marked with Mandarin Chinese pronunciation by Chinese pinyin. The most remarkable feature of Chinese character is that it does not directly indicating pronunciation but combining shapes and meanings.
#Translation vs transliteration how to
We, in this article, will explore how to translate and protect your brand in the Chinese market. Due to the complexity of Chinese language, many foreign companies may have doubts in translating their Latin trademarks into corresponding Chinese trademarks and protecting the Chinese trademarks.
#Translation vs transliteration registration
When entering the Chinese market, a foreign company, besides application for the registration of its Latin trademark in China, needs to design the corresponding Chinese trademark and apply for its registration in a timely manner to adapt to the cognitive custom of Chinese consumers and exploit the Chinese market on the one hand, and protect the trademark rights fully and comprehensively on the other.
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