4、一波未平一波又起

4、一波未平一波又起

Innovo在产品遭到一家private enterprise的仿造之后，按照Nancy的建议采用了“软硬兼施”的手段把这个令人头疼的问题暂时搞定了。Johnson感叹说：“The Chinese know best how to deal with Chinese problem.（中国人的问题还得靠中国人来解决。）”Nancy跟他开玩笑说：“外来的和尚不一定好念经哦！”在中国工作这么多年以后，Johnson的汉语已经相当不错了，他明白Nancy的意思，不好意思地笑了。

大家刚刚松了一口气，谁知一波未平一波又起。

午餐之后，Nancy和同事们有说有笑地回到办公室。刚一坐下，桌上的电话就响了起来，是公司的legal consultant Tommy。他叫Nancy马上到VP办公室去。接到电话后Nancy不禁奇怪，到底什么事儿会这么急啊？午休还没结束呢。该不会是刚刚搞定的那个patent infringement case又出什么问题了吧。她匆匆赶到VP办公室，只见Tommy和VP正在那里严肃地讨论着，神情很是紧张。见Nancy来了，赶紧招手叫她过去。

Nancy走近了，看见Johnson的办公桌上放着一份court（法院）发来的announcement（通告），标题是“对Innovo公司侵犯知识产权的通告”。Nancy以为自己看错了，赶紧拿起announcement仔细读了起来，原来是competitor（竞争对手）Maintop公司认定Innovo刚推出的新产品有infringe（侵犯）Maintop IPR的行为，并列举数条evidence（证据），以此为依据claim for compensation（提出赔偿要求）。

这真是太富有戏剧性了，本来是Innovo遭到了别人的侵权，现在却又有第三方突然出来状告Innovo侵权。显然，这突如其来的情况把Johnson也弄晕了。他焦急地希望Tommy和Nancy能赶快想出办法应对这个mess（混乱的局面）。

Nancy明白，公司遇上这种事，不论控告是否属实，很快就会有媒体来大肆报道这起风波。如果控制不好局面，这将对公司的声誉造成不可预计的negative influence（负面影响）。Johnson觉得Innovo需要迅速做出反应，表明立场和态度。Tommy作为legal consultant，主要是从法律的角度来分析这个问题。Nancy更多地想到的是如何做好crisis management（危机管理）。三个人又认真地研究了一遍announcement，经过一番讨论，最后达成一致：要调查和应对这个IPR Claim是必须的，但现在首要的任务是确定如何应对媒体、社会和公司员工的questions（疑问）。

　　Rules of Crisis Communications

Have an in-depth crisis communications plan that includes dealing with the media, the community and your employees.

Name a spokesperson and two back-ups.

Deal with the crisis head-on. Do not hide out.

Never lie. The big lie would be stupid but many executives tend to tell the little white lie.

Never go off the record. In a crisis there is already much confusion. Do not add to it. Tell a reporter only what you want to see on the front page of the paper.

由于时间紧迫，他们很快制定好了一个应急方案，VP决定让Nancy做应对媒体的speaker。于是Nancy赶紧开始按照大家商量好的思路准备如何回答媒体的质疑。为了防止出错，她把要讲的内容写在纸上。如果在回答问题时用词不当，一些媒体很可能会在对外报道时添油加醋，曲解本意，那样后果就不堪设想了。

果不其然，下午三点，就有外媒记者打来电话。针对Innovo涉嫌infringement的事情要求予以解释。好在公司已经做好了准备，前台总机的小姑娘接到电话后，没有多说一句话，马上按照事先的安排把电话转给了Nancy。

I am informed that Maintop Company lodged a complaint with court this morning. The lawsuit filed accuses your infringing their patents relating to technology covering speech coding. Could you comment on that?

We will defend strongly against the lawsuit in subject. Maintop Company's claim refers to the successful new products that are based on our patent portfolio, acquired by us in December, 2011.

These products are unique in their functioning and are highly acknowledged as an excellent solution in the field of speech coding.

Our products result from wholly owned proprietary technology. Innovo Company is highly confident that the Maintop Company's patent will be held not infringed and invalid. Innovo Company will vigorously defend itself and its products in the interests of its customers and shareholders.

These new products use Innovo Company's registered trade mark. To discover how these products can add value to our customers' application, please feel free to visit our website.

Thank you for calling. You are always welcome to visit our company.

放下电话，Nancy松了一口气，这一关算是闯过来了。她不敢懈怠，立刻把刚才向媒体说明的情况做了个书面report，用e-mail发给了VP和Tommy作为参考，以便大家统一口径，商量下一步的对策。