First of all, a food trademark can distinguish it from similar goods. The identifiability is the basic function of trademarks. Food trademark is also another important tool in developing market. Food producers use trademarks to indicate the source of goods. Consumers can learn the productions through trademarks. This is another function of food trademarks. Producers can use food trademark to make clear that this kind of food is produced by them. Consumers can also identify goods through food trademarks.  Therefore, the using of food trademarks makes the producers pay attention to the qualities of their goods and maintain the stability of quality. Normally in real life, the breakdown of a trademark means the end of the company. And today, the food trademark is used to release commodity information. The food trademark becomes a kind of silent advertisement.

1.2 Background and basic concepts of Skopostheorie

Skopos is the Greek word for "aim" or "purpose" and was introduced into translation theory in the 1970s by Hans J. Vermeer as a technical term for the purpose of a translation and of the action of translating.(Vermeer 22) He strongly disagrees with the view that translation is simply a matter of language, he views translation essentially as a form of action, in other words, “a cross-cultural event” He points out that translation is a kind of human behavior with purposes. The Skopostheorie decides the translation strategies according to the expected purpose from the target readers’ point of view. Those who agree on the Skopostheorie argue that translation is an activity with clear intention. It is a cross-cultural communication activity which is originally text-based. Translation is the interactive activities with intended purpose. The intended purpose firstly refers to changing the existed situation. At least it should make those who are unable to communicate due to language barrier achieve communication. Further, it refers to the intention of communicative nature in a more strict sense. 

Skopostheorie has three basic rules. They are the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. The skopos rule requires that the purpose of the translation decides the translating action. Translation purpose determines the translation process. It is the highest rule among the three rules. The coherence rule means the target receiver is able to understand the target text. Just as coherence rule of Skopostheorie specifies, a translation should be acceptable in a sense which is coherent with the receivers' situation. The fidelity, as Vermeer calls it, is a requirement on the relationship of source text and target text. Vermeer believes that fidelity should exist between source text and target text, though the form it takes depends both on the translator's interpretation of the source text and on the translation Skopos. The fidelity rule requires the translation should be faithful to the source text. The extent of faithfulness depends on the purpose of the text and the understanding of the source text by the translator. Therefore, according to the Skopostheorie, the source text just offers information in the process of translating. The translator adopts appropriate strategies to rewrite the source text according to the purpose of translation and the understanding of the source text by the translator.

2. Literature Review

     As a special and important part of culture and language, food trademark translation has already attracted people's attention for a long time, thus researches on food trademark translation have been carried out by lots of scholars in various fields all around the world. In the several past years, many scholars have focused on this field and published some valuable papers. 

In 2002, Guorui published An Intercultural Approach to the Study of Brand Name, he studied the cultural origin, cultural connotation of trademarks from the intercultural approach and revealed their reflection in various aspects such as, social customs, religion, morality and so on (Guo 4). 功能翻译理论知名食品商标翻译(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_80755.html