CHAPTER XI. CONVENTIONS BETWEEN FOREIGN STATES. SECTION 1. CONVENTION OF MONTEVIDEO (SOUTH AMERICAN STATES) CONCERNING PATENTS OF INVENTION.1 [January 16, 1889. La Propriété Industrielle, 1898, Année 14, p. 118.] His Excellency the President of the Argentine Republic; His Excellency the President of the Republic of Chili; His Excellency the President of the Republic of Paraguay; His Excellency the President of the Republic to the east of the REPRESENTED BY Who, having exhibited their full powers, have been recognized in good and due form, and have taken part in the conferences and necessary discussions, are agreed upon the following provisions: ARTICLE 1. Any person who shall have obtained a patent or privilege of invention in one of the subscribing States shall enjoy, in the other States, the rights of inventor, if, within the maximum delay of one year, he has registered his patent according to the manner determined by the laws of the country where he demands recognition of these rights. ART. 2. The privilege shall hold the number of years fixed by the laws of the country where it is desired to put it in force. This term may, however, be reduced to that fixed by the laws of the State where the patent has been originally granted if it be of less duration. ART. 3. Contests raised in what concerns the priority of invention shall be decided according to the date where the respective patents have been demanded in the countries which have granted them. ART. 4. The following are considered as constituting an invention or a discovery: A new process, a mechanical or manual apparatus used for the manufacture of industrial products; the discovery of a new industrial product, and the application of improved means aiming to obtain results superior to those which are already known. The following can not be made patentable: 1. Inventions and discoveries which shall have been made public in one of the subscribing States, or in other States not connected with the present convention. According to our information this convention will be in force between the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. 2. Those which may be contrary to morality and to the laws of the countries where the patents should be delivered or recognized. ART. 5. The right of the inventor comprehends the power to derive profit from his invention and to transfer it to others. ART. 6. Civil and criminal infringements committed by those who shall have violated the right of the inventor shall be prosecuted and punished according to the laws of the country where the wrong shall have been done. ART. 7. For entrance into force of the present convention, it is not necessary that it shall have been ratified simultaneously by all the subscribing States. The one which shall have approved it shall give information of it to the governments of the Argentine Republic and the republic to the east of the Uruguay, in order that they give information of it to the other contracting States. This notification will take the place of exchange of ratifications. ART. 8. The exchange of ratifications having once taken place, in the manner indicated by the preceeding article, the present convention shall enter into force from this moment for an indefinite duration. ART. 9. If one of the subscribing States judge it advisable to withdraw from the convention, or to introduce modifications, it shall make it known to the other States; but it shall be released only after the expiration of two years after the notice, during which delay a new understanding shall be sought for. ART. 10. Article 7 may be extended to those of the States not having taken part in the congress which desire to agree to the present treaty. In testimony of which, etc. (Signatures.) SECTION 2. CONVENTION OF MONTEVIDIO (SOUTH AMERICAN STATES) CONCERNING TRADE MARKS.1 [January 16, 1889.] His Excellency the President of the Argentine Republic; His Excellency the President of the Republic of Bolivia; His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil; His Excellency the President of the Republic of Chile; His Excellency the President of the Republic of Paraguay; His Excellency the President of the Republic of Peru; and His Excellency the President of the Republic to the east of the Uruguay. REPRESENTED BY Who have exhibited their full powers, have been recognized in good and due form, and have taken part in the conferences and necessary discussions, are agreed upon the following provisions: ARTICLE 1. Any person to whom the right to the exclusive use of a trade-mark shall have been granted in one of the subscribing States According to our information this convention will be in force between the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. shall enjoy the same privilege in the other States, in consideration of the observation of the formalities and conditions established by their laws. ART. 2. The property of a trade-mark comprehends the power to put it in use, to transfer it, or to alienate it. ART. 3. A trade-mark is considered as such when it is the sign, emblem, or external name which the merchant or manufacturer adopts or affixes to his merchandise and products, in order to distinguish them from those of other workmen or merchants who deal in articles of the same kind. 1 There belong also to marks of this kind those so-called designs of fabric or labores which, by weaving or printing, are applied to the same product which is put on sale. ART. 4. Counterfeits and falsifications of trade-marks shall be prosecuted before the courts, conformable to the laws of the State upon the territory wherein the fraud has been committed. ART. 5. For entrance into force of the present convention it is not necessary that it shall have been ratified simultaneously by all the subscribing States. The one which shall have approved it shall give information of it to the Governments of the Argentine Republic and the Republic to the east of the Uruguay, in order that they give information of it to the other contracting States. This notification will take the place of exchange of ratifications. ART. 6. The exchange of ratifications having once taken place in a manner indicated in the preceding article, the present convention shall enter into force from this moment for an indefinite duration. ART. 7. If one of the subscribing States judge it advisable to withdraw from the convention or to introduce modifications, it shall make it known to the other States; but it shall be released only upon the expiration of two years after the notice, during which delay a new understanding shall be sought for. ART. 8. Article 5 may be extended to those of the States which desire to agree to the present treaty. In testimony of which, etc. (Signatures.) SECTION 3. CONVENTION CONCLUDED DECEMBER 6, 1891, BETWEEN GERMANY AND AUSTRIAHUNGARY, IN THE MATTER OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY. [Translated and condensed from La Propriété Industrielle, January 1, 1892, p. 1.] Germany and Austria-Hungary concluded on December 6, 1891, a convention for the reciprocal protection of industrial property which is of great interest. Up to the present time this matter has been regulated between the two countries by article 20 of the commercial treaty of May 23, 1881, by which the parties agreed in the matter of trade-marks to accord to the foreigner the same treatment as accorded to subjects, and in the matter of patents not to consider official publications as printed publications negativing the novelty of an invention until three months after publication. 1 Like signification; this term is used principally for textile products. The first article of this convention assures to applicants in one of the countries the same treatment within the territory of the other which is accorded to subjects of that country in the matter of inventions, designs, and industrial models, trade-marks, and the commercial name. The benefits of these provisions are extended by article 2 to subjects or citizens of other States who are domiciled in or have their principal establishment within the territory of one of the contracting States. These two articles are substantially the same as articles 2 and 3 of the International Convention of 1883. Articles 3 and 4 provide for delays of priority analogous to those of the International Convention, but differ in regard to the date at which the delay of priority begins, according to the nature of the subjectmatter to be protected. These articles are as follows: ART. 3. Whenever an invention, a design or model, or a trade-mark is made the subject of an application for protection in the territory of one of the contracting parties, and, within a delay of three months, the application is also made in the territory of the other contracting party: (a) This second application shall have priority over all others which may have been filed in the territory of the other party subsequent to the date of the first application. (b) Circumstances arising subsequent to the date of the first application shall not negative the novelty of this application in the territory of the other party. ART. 4. The delay of priority provided for in the preceding section begins: (a) In case of designs and models and trade-marks at the moment of the filing of the first application. (b) In case of inventions, at the moment of the grant of the patent on the first application. (c) In case of objects which are applied for in Germany as models of utility (Gebrauchmuster) and in Austria-Hungary as patentable inventions, at the moment of the filing of the application, if the latter is filed in Germany, and at the moment of the grant of the patent on the first application if the latter is filed in AustriaHungary. The day of filing or of the grant is not included in this delay of priority. The day on which notice is given of the decision concerning the definite grant of the patent is considered the date of the grant. Article 5 provides that the introduction into the territory of one of the parties of a product manufactured in the territory of the other shall not work the forfeiture of the protection granted to an invention, a design, or model applicable to such product. This is almost the same as the first paragraph of article 5 of the International Convention of 1883. Article 6 gives effect to the principle established by article 6 of the International Convention under which registration for a mark already registered in the territory of one of the parties can not be refused in the territory of the other for the reason that its composition and form do not satisfy the requirements of the local law. This is a great advance on the system established by the former commercial treaty under which each country treated the marks of the other according to its own law and could thus refuse protection to foreign marks of great value, thus encouraging unfair competition. Article 7 of this convention protects the rights of interested parties in Austria by providing that trade-marks known in the territory of one of the parties as the distinctive marks used by members of an industrial association or the inhabitants of a locality or specified district can not be used as "free marks," if they have been deposited in the territory of the other party before October 1, 1875. This date is, in Germany, the latest date permitted for the deposit of marks in use. before the law in respect thereto went into effect. The provisions relative to the suppression of false indications of origin (article 8) go further than those of article 10 of the International Convention of 1883. They apply to indications of origin of all kinds, as provided for in the first protocol of the conference at Madrid, which took effect as to a certain number of the States of the Union within the following year. . SECTION 4. CONVENTIONS IN REFERENCE TO INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY CONCLUDED BY [Translated and condensed from La Propriété Industrielle, May 1, 1892, p. 55.] Germany has concluded with Italy, under date of January 18, 1892, and with Switzerland, under date of April 13, 1892, conventions which rest, as a precedent, on the principles which are the basis of the International Convention of 1883, but differing in some particulars from that Convention. The first two articles of these conventions, which assimilate to subjects or citizens of each State the subjects or citizens of the other contracting State and other persons who are domiciled or located in the territory of the latter, are equivalent to articles 2 and 3 of the International Convention, with this difference, that in order to be entitled to these benefits the foreigner not domiciled must have his principal establishment in one of the two countries. In the convention between Germany and Italy the provisions respecting the effect of the delay of priority are the same as in the convention between Germany and Austria. This is as follows: ART. 3. The application, on the territory of one of the contracting parties, for protection for an invention, a design or model, or a trade-mark shall have, if it is followed within the period of delay hereinafter indicated by a like application in the territory of the other party, the following effects: (a) The latter application shall have priority over all other applications filed in the territory of the other contracting party subsequent to the filing of the first application. (b) The novelty of the subject-matter to which the first application relates shall not be negatived by facts arising subsequently to the latter in the territory of the other contracting party. The corresponding article of the convention with Switzerland is as follows: ART. 3. Whenever an application for an invention, a design or model, or a trademark is filed in the territory of one of the contracting parties, and, within a period of three months thereafter, application is made in the territory of the other, the latter shall have the same effect as if it had been filed at the date of the former. The provision by which the date of beginning of the delay of priority is determined is in the following terms in the convention with Italy: ART. 4. The delay of priority provided for in article 3 begins: (a) In case of designs and models and trade-marks at the moment of the filing of the first application. (b) In case of inventions at the moment of the grant of the patent on the first application. |