A：Tell your graphic artists to go back to the drawing board for our new logo design. I just saw the prototype that came out of your department last week. It just won’t work.

B：Why? What’s the problem?

A：It is way too similar to the Nike swoosh. Don’t you know? That’ s copyrighted. If we come out with something even close to the design they have, we could be legally liable. They’d sue us in a heartbeat.

B：I saw the design. We had a team of all-star designers on it. I don’ t think it resembled Nike’ s logo at all. That’s a huge stretch of the imagination to say our design would violate their copyright.

A：Our legal department doesn’t think so. They reviewed the copyrighted images from Nike. After discussion with our general manager, they determined it would be copyright infringement to place this design on our products. It’ s better to be safe than sorry.

B：What if we modified the design a little bit. Say we change the color. Do you think that would be enough to differentiate from the copyrighted image?

A：Nope. The verdict from the legal department is to start from scratch. This time come up with something more creative.

B：More creative?

A：Not only do we have to worry about not overstepping bounds with copyright, but we also want something different from everyone else. We want to stand out to our consumers. Come up with something good, then we'll set our own copyright on it.

B：Okay. Looks like it’s back to square one.

A：去告诉你们的设计师回画室讨论一下我们新徽标的设计问题。我刚刚看过你们部门上星期拿出的设计样，根本不能用。

B：为什么？有什么问题？

A：这个设计与耐克产品上的图案太相似了。你难道不知道，这是受版权保护的？哪怕我们设计出来的东西与他们的图案接近，我们也会负法律责任的，他们会立即起诉我们。

B：我看过那个设计，那是我们明星团队一手设计的，我认为根本不像耐克的标识。说我们的设计会侵犯他们的版权，这想象力未免有点儿太丰富了。

A：我们的法律部门可不这么认为。他们仔细看了耐克受版权保护的图案，并和我们总经理讨论过。他们认定如果把这个图案放在我们的产品上，那会侵犯他们的版权。我们好还是防患于未然吧。

B：如果我们再修改一下设计怎么样？比如说把颜色变变，你认为这样就足以与受版权保护的图案区分了吧？

A：不行。法律部门的定论是一切从零开始。这一次要搞出更有独创性的设计。

B：更有独创性？

A：我们不但要小心别越过版权的权限，而且还要拿出与众不同的设计。我们的设计要醒目以吸引顾客。有了好的设计，我们就可以申请自己的版权了。

B：好的。看来还是重新设计吧。

Performance Reviews 业绩评估

A：Let’s go over Friday’ s performance reviews.

B：Most of them were pretty positive. Take Tom Clark for example. He’s extroverted, which makes him a very effective salesman. You can see his sales for this quarter are a record high for our company. He’s also easygoing and very friendly. Add that to his good looks, and you can see why he’ s so popular, in and out of the office!

A：Yes, I’ve also heard that he’s a lady’s man. Well, that is actually a strike against him in the performance review. It seems like he has trouble keeping his private life and professional life separate. He has been involved in several office romances that have been detrimental to employee professionalism and performance.

B：He was censored for the two incidents, and since then, he has corrected his behavior. I think that says a lot for his character.

A：Do you recommend him for a raise, then?

B：I think he’s deserving of a promotion because he has brought a lot of profit to the company.

A：What about John Martin? His report wasn’ t so hot. He’s always making excuses, he has no common sense, and he lacks responsibility.

B：You can see his sales record is less than impressive. He is hard to deal with. After disciplinary action, he complained to the Board of Directors with charges of discrimination. It seems he always ignores his faults and criticizes others.

A：Just between you and me, I can’ t stand the guy. But it’s very difficult to fire him. He landed this position because of his parents. They are very influential stockholders.

A：我们看一下周五的业绩评估情况。

B：大部分都是正面评价。拿汤姆•克拉克来说，他性格外向，因此做推销员非常合适。你可以看到他这个季度的销售额创了我们公司的较高记录。他本人也比较随和，很友好。再加上他长相不错，因此他在我们办公室内外备受欢迎。

A：你说得对，我也听说他很讨女人喜欢。事实上，这也正是他在业绩评估中遭到攻击的原因。似乎他公私生活不分，又卷入了几宗办公室绯闻，这对一个员工的职业道德和业绩表现有害无益。

B：他因为那两件事情受到审查，从那以后，他改正了自己的行为。我想这清楚说明了他的个性。

A：那你同意给他提职吗？

B：我认为应该给他升职，因为他给公司创造了大量利润。

A：约翰•马丁怎么样？他的名声没有那么多争议。可他总是找借口，没有什么常识，也缺少责任心。

B：你看他的销售记录也没有什么起色。这个人很难打交道。惩戒他之后，他向董事会抱怨指控我们歧视他。好像他总是无视自己的过错，反而批评他人。

A：这事就我们两个知道就行了，我受不了这家伙。可是要解雇他很难。他得到这个职位是由于他父母的缘故，他们可是有影响力的股东。