一步一个脚印

Briefing

Joshua is a British man in charge of the Beijing branch of a multinational education group. Recently his company has been caught up in a commercial dispute. Today he has come to see a lawyer named Zhang at Baxter Law Firm in Beijing.

 

Listen to Dialogue

Mandarin-English Dialogue #4 – Copyright Dispute

Dialogue Transcript

Mr Zhang: 您好！欢迎来到巴克思特律师事务所！我是这里的律师张辉。请您这边儿坐！ [Hello! Welcome to Baxter Law Firm. My name is Zhang Hui and I am a lawyer here. Please, take a seat.]

Joshua: Thank you very much! [非常感谢你！]

Mr Zhang: 首先我们要感谢您上次的电话咨询，以及您对我们事务所的信任。今天请您来的目的是想和您确认一些重要的信息，另外还有一些费用及合同方面的东西需要跟您讲清楚。[Firstly I’d like to thank you for your last phone enquiry and the confidence you’ve put in our firm. The reason we asked you to come in today was so we could confirm a few important things. There are also some expenses and contractual aspects that we’d like to clarify with you.]

Joshua: OK, Mr Zhang! I will try my best to help you out. [好的，张先生！我会尽我最大努力来帮助你。]

Mr Zhang: 好的。首先呢，我们想就一些细节方面的信息做一下笔录。您上次谈到索菲亚教育集团，也就是您的工作单位。[OK. Firstly we’d like to make note of a few particular details. The Sophia Education Group that you talked about last time is also the place where you are working.]

( … )

教材的版权问题同北京的一家语言学校产生了一些纠纷。请问具体是哪一所学校？ [The copyright issues of the teaching materials from a language school in Beijing have caused a dispute. Could you please tell me which school it was?]

Joshua: Off the top of my head, I think it was called “Beijing Great Wall Foreign Language School”, something like that. [如果没记错的话，我记得那个学校叫做“北京长城外语学校”，差不多是那样。]

( … )

And, uh, in order to help students improve their listening and speaking skills in their foreign language, the Sophia Education Group recommended a series of foreign language teaching materials. [还有，恩，为了帮助学生们提高他们在外语的听力和口语方面的技能，索非亚教育集团推荐了一系列的外语教学材料。]

( … )

They called them “native” teaching materials and they were apparently direct from the US. But we had no idea where the hell they came from. [他们把这些教材称为“原版”教材而且这些材料都显然是直接从美国运过来的。但我们完全不知道它们到底是从哪里来的。]

( … )

Not long after, the Great Wall Foreign Language School claimed they had bought the exclusive publishing rights of these materials in mainland China. [没过多久，长城外国语学校声称他们已经买下了这些材料在中国大陆的独家发行权。]

( … )

However according to our investigation, the publisher of the teaching materials had not, in any shape or form, sold the rights to a third party. Then, in June this year, we sought legal advice. [然后，根据我们的调查，这些教材的发行商并没有以任何形式将这些权利卖给第三方。之后到了今年六月，我们寻求了法律援助。]

Mr Zhang: 恩，好的。那您之前要求过对方出示相关证据吗？ [OK. Now, have you requested any kind of evidence of this from the other party?]

Joshua: Yep! And much to our surprise the school mangaged to produce some kind of evidence, but its credibility remains to be seen. [没错！出乎我们意料的是这个学校设法炮制出了某种类型的证据，但这些证据的可信度依然有待验证。]

Mr Zhang: 那您之后是否有联系过该系列教材的美国出版商呢？[Now, after that, did you contact the American publisher of the teaching materials?]

Joshua: Sure, but they said that there was definitely no record that the rights to the original edition had been sold to a third party. [是的，但他们说绝对没有任何已经将最初版本的发行权卖给第三方的记录。]

Mr Zhang: 好的，根据您刚才的描述，我想我们已经大概了解了事件的整个经过。之前我们也接触过类似的案例，这一类案例都涉及到一些与政府新颁布的有关著作权的法律。[OK. According to the description you’ve just given, I think we more or less understand the whole thing. We have previously been involved in these kind of cases which involve governments issuing new copyright laws.]

( … )

不过我们需要同该教材的美国出版商进一步联系，来确认具体的一些信息。[However we will need to get in touch again with this American publisher to confirm a few details.]

Joshua: OK. I will do my best to assist you with the investigation. [好的，我会尽最大努力协助你的调查。]

Mr Zhang: 那就好。这份文件是事务所与客户之间的合同，您看一下合同的英文部分，上面列出了所有的相关费用及注意事项，您看看有没有不明白或者不清楚的地方吗？[That’s great. This document is a contract between the firm and the client. Have a look at the English section – it lists all relevant costs and items needing attention. Please have a look and let me know if there is anything you don’t understand or which needs to be clarified.]

Joshua: Oh, OK, thank you! Hmm, I got most of it… ah, there’s just some parts I’m not sure about. Ah, what does “Other Expenses” refer to? And why are the expenses so high? [哦，好的，谢谢你！恩，我看懂了大部分。。。阿，那里有些地方我不是很清楚，恩，“其他开销”是指什么呢？还有，为什么这个部分的开销这么高呢？]

Mr Zhang: 是这样的，在事件调查过程中，尤其是跨国的案例，就不免会涉及到一些通讯及交通费用。[The thing is, during the process of our investigations – and especially in transnational cases – we inevitably incur some communication and transportation expenses.]

( … )

有时为了协助案件的调查，我们也会去一些付费的档案馆查询一些资料等等。这时候呢，就需要客户来承担相关的费用啦。[Sometimes we will also incur fees when accessing archives to acquire data and so on to assist the investigation. In these cases we require the client to bear some of the costs.]

Joshua: Oh, I see. [哦，我知道了。]

Mr Zhang: 谢谢您的理解。如果您觉得没有问题的话，请在文件的右下方签上您的名字，注明日期。[Thank you for understanding. If you’re OK with everything please sign your name at the lower right part of the document and indicate the date.]

Joshua: Oh, OK. No problem. [哦，好的。没问题。]

Mr Zhang: 这是我们的名片！如果您还有其它的问题，请拨打上面的电话或者发电子邮件给我们，我们会第一时间给您回复的！再次感谢您的到来，希望我们的合作愉快！[This is my business card! If you have any other questions, please ring the number on here or send us an email, we will reply to you immediately. Thank you again for coming in and we look forward to seeing you in the future.]

Joshua: Ah, great, that all sounds fine then. See you later. [哦，很好，这样听起来都不错。回头见。]