Pristine¹ 是一家专门制造高级手表、行销国际的公司；日前发现受雇的越南工厂竟仿冒其产品非法贩卖，严重损害他们的权益。面对这个问题，公司的主管阶级有人主张提出控诉，也有人持相反意见。

Dave: Wang Trading ismaking knockoffsof our watches and selling them. I say we tell them right away to stop, orwe'll take them to court.Do I have everyone's support on this?Bob? Wang贸易公司仿冒我们的手表并且上市销售，我认为我们要马上叫他们停止，不然就告到法院去。大家赞成我的想法吗？Bob？

Bob:You have my full backing, Dave. If we don't show everyone that we'll hurt them when they do these things, other companies will start to make more knockoffs later. Dave，我完全支持你。要是我们不打击这些仿冒我们产品的公司，以后其它的公司就会仿冒得更厉害。

Mary: I'm sorry, but I think that's just what we shouldn't do. We'd need to use Vietnam's laws; we all know that the government there won't help a Taiwanese company fight a Vietnamese company. 对不起，我认为我们不该这么做。到时候我们得采用越南的法律，而大家都知道当地政府是不会帮一间台湾的公司对付他们国内的公司。

Dave: I see your point, but we need to punish them, and let others see us punishing them, so nobody else will ever try the same thing. 我了解你的想法，但是我们总得惩戒他们，杀鸡儆猴，才不会有人跟着仿冒。

Mary: Companies have tried that many, many times before -- it never works². If we stop this company, there will just be another company that will do the same thing. If there is a chance for making profits, someone will try it. 许多公司以前就试过了，但是从来没有人成功。就算我们阻止了这家公司，也会有另一家公司起而效之。只要是有利可图，就会有人想去做。

Bob: We'recutting our own throatsif we don't do something. Are you saying we should just do nothing? 如果我们不想想办法，简直是自取灭亡。你的意思是要我们坐视不管吗？

Mary: Not at all. What I'm saying is that the knockoffs are being sold in a market that our watches aren't sold in. If we want to stop others from selling knockoffs, we should get into this market ourselves. 当然不是。我的意思是这些仿冒品销售的巿场和我们手表销售的市场，并不相同。如果我们要阻止别人继续贩卖仿冒品，就该自己打进这个市场。

Notes:

1. knockoff 仿冒品

knockoff为美国俚语，特指未经许可而非法仿冒、以贱价在市场出售的物品。

Even though it's illegal³, you can get cheap knockoffs of almost every kind of high quality watch on the streets of Hong Kong.
尽管不合法，在香港街道上，人们还是可以买到各式各样的高级手表廉价仿冒品。

2. take (someone) to court 向法院控诉（某方）

court是"法院；法庭"； take是"带"的意思，表示将某人或某事提起上诉，其后可接人或事。To也可用into代替。这个词组相当于"haul（someone）into court"，"haul"为"拖；拉"。
It says in our agreement you'd deliver the goods by this Friday; if they aren't here by then, I'm taking you to court.
约中规定你必须在周五前把货送到；如果没有运到，我要向法院控告你。

3. cut one's own throat 自杀；自取灭亡

Throat 是"喉咙"；这个词组的字面意思是"抹脖子；自刎"，比喻自取灭亡。"cut...throat"用在其它词组中，有不同的含意，例如：cut one another's throats为"互相残杀"。
Paul cut his own throat by talking about how bad Sue⁴ is as manager, because people thought he would talk bad about them too.
Paul老是说Sue是差劲的经理，这简直是自掘坟墓；因为大家认为他八成也会说每个人的坏话。

来源：《国际商务英语教程》上海理工大学通讯员何旖文供稿