Luna Pen Case Writeup
Report on Luna Pen case PA major 0420830 Lee Joo-Hyun Q1. If you were in Erika’s position, what steps might give you the best chance of achieving your goals? First of all, I think it’s rather dangerous to prepare negotiation plan solely based on stereotype of specific race/nationality. But still it’s foolish to ignore cultural difference. Since negotiation counterpart Feng is not from mainland China but from Taiwan, I believe there would be little or no disadvantage of Erika being female.
But in case DGG is planning a bigger picture (for example, sharing distribution system of Global Service in Asia region) than just resolving trademark right issue, I think it is better to consider the fact Taiwanese regard Guan-Xi (relationship) as important aspect in terms of long term, friendly relationship. Therefore it would probably be a good idea to prepare a male represent with similar position to Erika along with her. Secondly Erika needs to gather more information about the counterpart; Feng and Global Service.
After all, negotiation process is to find compromise or creative option between my constraint conditions/needs and their constraint conditions/needs. I’ll discuss about it more in following Question #2. Thirdly, Erika needs to build up negotiation plan. She need to determine what DGG intend to/should earn and how far DGG can back down. After defining goals & constraints (or setting Maginot Line), assuming the worst case scenario is also important step.
In this case, the worst case possible could be something like this; “Feng & Global Service refuses to negotiate, pointing out that DGG abandoned and stop making product under the name of Luna. Thus DGG is left with no other choice but to file an uncertain lawsuit which would be both time consuming and costly. ” To prevent this from happening, it would be unwise to start the first contact with firm stand like writing Feng that his company must cease its unauthorized use of he Luna name, and that DGG is prepared to file lawsuit if necessary. Instead, I think it’s better to mention that DGG is aware of the fact that Luna pen is selling well under the marketing and distribution power of Feng and Global Service and DGG is more than willing to negotiate about the usage of Luna name. Q2. What further information might you need before contacting Feng; and how might you realistically obtain it? First of all, DGG need to figure out brand value (or brand power) of Luna by doing brief market research.
By doing so, DGG can tell how much the brand power affected the total sale of Feng’s Luna pen and use it as a sharable standard in negotiation. I believe this data can be obtained rather simply. All DGG have to do is to run series of survey to group of customers, asking their willingness to pay for given pen with/without brand name Luna. Secondly, it would be a good idea to find potential buyers that are willing to buy the trademark Luna. The information of potential buyers could later be used as a mean to pressure Feng and Global Service if necessary.
Since selling Luna brand would not harm DGG, by contacting company in pen making business, DGG can obtain information of potential buyers while spreading news that DGG is trying to sell Luna name as well. And as a last resort, DGG should investigate the legal position of DGG in this case. (Especially in terms of Taiwanese court) If DGG files a lawsuit, what are the odd of winning the case, how long will it take, and how much is the estimated cost of lawsuit?
The answers to these questions are key factors to decide whether to file a lawsuit or not. If odds are against DGG, it will be more reasonable to approach this negotiation in more cooperative, soft stand. On the other hand, if the odds are in favor of DGG, DGG can use lawsuit both as leverage to pressure Feng and last resort to settle this matter. Such data can be obtained via corporate legal department.
