Appunti di International Marketing Management

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goods™ and services (™ or are trademarks put on the words).

Trademarks, unlike patents, can be renewed forever as long as they are being used.

The rights to a trademark are gained by registration in most countries, “first to file”,

or by their use “first to use”, depending on country legislation.

International trademark disputes may arise from a number of causes. For example,

the same term regarded as distinctive in one country, may not be in another because

of different consumer perceptions of a brand from one country to another. Another

cause of disputes is the mistaken belief that a trademark covers similar products or

services.

A global arrangement for trademark protection is exemplified by the Madrid

Agreement administered by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual

Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Registration of a trademark under the agreement provides for the legal equivalent of

registration in member countries designated by the mark owner and affords the

owner protection in all member countries for a ten-year period. Moreover,

registration in one language is sufficient for all countries.

Example: For the Pepsi can, everything is under trademark registration, from the

name to the logo, to the colors…

China has a “first to file” trademark system that requires no evidence of prior use or

ownership, leaving registration of popular foreign trademarks open to anyone,

including some well-known global brands.

In some cases it is necessary to register a different trademark in some countries,

because they were already registered for some other products.

Patents

● Patent is a form of protection that provides a person or legal entity with exclusive

rights for making, using or selling a concept or invention and excludes others from

doing the same for its duration:

• Patents can be maintained for a maximum of twenty years;

• Decision to grant or reject a patent rests with each country authority;

• Patent treaties provide the option of submitting one patent for protection in

several nations.

There are a number of international patent agreements in Europe, Asia, US and

Africa.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is administered by the World Intellectual

Property Organization. It addresses procedural requirements for obtaining a patent

and aims to simplify filing, searching, and publication of international patent

applications. All EU countries are members of the Treaty.

The Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) members include Armenia, Azerbaijan,

Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and

Turkmenistan. Under the Eurasian Convention a single patent application

designating all of the member countries is filed in a single language (Russian) in a

central patent office in Moscow. Administration of that application is similar to that

of the European Patent Office. Maximum duration of a patent is twenty years.

Of all countries, China had the most patent applications, followed by the United

States, Japan and the Republic of Korea. There are a number of factors that account

for the number of patent filings in a given country. Some of these are the amount of

money invested in R&D and education.

In Africa, there are two intellectual property organizations, the African Regional

Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) whose members are mainly English

speaking and the African Intellectual Property Organization for French speaking

nations.

Patents are important in different countries because you have to protect your ideas,

they are an index of innovation for that country.

More patents you have, the higher

is the level of innovation, research,

money in education…

Of all countries, China granted

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the most patents followed by the

United States and Japan.

Yet when viewed by the number of

patents granted per million people,

which takes the size of the country

into consideration, China was in

second place in between Germany

(first) and the United States (third).

Software piracy

● Is the unauthorized reproduction

and illegal distribution of software,

whether for business or personal

use. Software piracy is endemic

throughout the world, but

especially so in the emerging

economies.

How can software be protected?

The best way to protect software

is to apply for a patent - but the

software must have some novel

application. A developer needs to

prove that the software’s

processes or result constitutes a service that did not previously exist.

According to agreements by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIP), any written software

has an automatic copyright.

Copyrights

● Copyrights give ownership to "original works of authorship", such as literary works,

paintings and video games; in the U.S. and EU, copyrights are registered for the life

of the author, plus 70 years.

Copyrights extend to other countries if they are part of an international copyright

treaty, convention or organization.

In Canada, copyrights extend 50 years after the life of the author.

One of the most contentious issues is the question of databases, digital recordings

and websites. Producers of sound recordings must have the right to prevent the

unauthorized reproduction of recordings for a period of 50 years.

Trade secrets

● Trade secrets are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage

over their competitors:

• Not protected in the same way as trademarks or patents;

• Must be guarded by non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements initiated by the

global marketer;

• Unfortunately, lack of formal protection means that a third party can duplicate and

use secret information if revealed;

• Firms often ask employees to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

Trade Regulations

1947-1994: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the main international

organization that codified rules for trade liberalization. Its major goal was to work towards

agreement to lower tariff restrictions. One of the major problems of the GATT agreement

was that services were not included even though they had become a significant component

of overall world trade. Another problem was an increasing protectionist policy among many

nations in order to subsidize their agricultural exports (ex. brands that destroy goods

instead of selling to maintain the price high).

1995: GATT was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is a forum for

governments to negotiate trade agreements and to settle trade disputes. Approximately 164

nations are members of the WTO. About 75 % of the observers are from developing

countries. Unlike the GATT agreement the WTO covers services, including intellectual

property. In addition, non-tariff barriers such as discriminatory product standards are also

included in the agreement.

Resolution of Trade Disputes

Trade disputes arise often between private parties such as businesses, between two

countries or between an individual and a country.

There are three ways to settle a dispute:

• Litigation through a court: it can be very costly and time consuming.

• Arbitration: is a course of action by which a dispute is submitted by the parties to one or

more arbitrators whose decision is binding.

• Mediation: it is a process where two parties agree on a mediator who tries to guide them

to a satisfactory settlement of the dispute. Solution is not binding.

There are a number of international organizations that provide arbitration, mediation

services, or both. Examples of arbitration centers include the International Center for

Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the World Intellectual Property Organization

(WIPO), Arbitration and Mediation Center, the London Court of International Arbitration

and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Areas Regulated

Marketing Mix Product Standards

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A key concern for global marketers is the presence of different product regulations

and standards on global, regional or national levels: multinational manufacturers

must adapt product strategy whenever necessary to fulfill required standards.

The production, processing, distribution, retail, packaging, and labeling of food

products are governed by a mass of laws, regulations, and codes of practice and

guidance that differ from one country to another.

Product planning:

• End products must meet standards in each target country;

• How does a company efficiently and cost-effectively accomplish this task?

There is no such thing as a worldwide standard for products: the EU has begun a

process of harmonization of standards that will apply to all its members refers to a

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process by which the technical requirements of various standards have been made

equivalent or identical.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an NGO headquartered

in Geneva (Switzerland) consisting of a network of national standards institutes of

over 160 countries. Its primary task is to develop international product standards

based on consensus with its members. Compliance with ISO standards is voluntary.

Advertising regulations are nationally and locally determined: every country

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determines how to regulate advertising that is perceived to be fraudulent or

misleading.

In the European Union, advertising is self regulated. According to the European

Standards Advertising Alliance, self-regulation (SR) is “a system by which the

advertising industry actively polices itself. The three parts of the industry (advertisers,

advertising agencies, and media) work together to agree standards and to set up a

system to ensure that advertisements which fail to meet those standards are quickly

corrected or removed”.

The Antitrust Authority has condemned the company that produces Dash for

misleading comparative advertising: Henkel, which produces the main competitor,

celebrated.

Comparative advertising citing the competitor can be misleading, false and in

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some countries you can’t do that depending on the country’s regulation.

Political risk

It may be defined as the probability that a set of unwanted events may occur, those being

those that can impact upon a firm's performance to the extent that they threaten the firm's

value.

Firm-specific risks are directed at a particular company (micro): for example,

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expropriation of the firm's assets, kidnapping employees, limits on the transfer of certain

technologies, and breach of contract.

Country-specific risks are nation-wide and impact all firms in a given industry (macro):

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for example, repatriation of profits, civil unrest, currency inconvertibility, forced local

shareholding and nationalization of an industry.

Assessing political risk should be a major concern for compani