if less than seventeen years, determined the term of the patent granted here. The law of March 3, 1897, did away with this limitation. The wisdom of this principle is now recognized by many of the European countries. By Mr. FORBES. Attention is called to Articles III to VI, which for the first time proposed a common agreement of Governments on the subject of patent protection, and which, through the congress held at the Paris Exposition of 1878, led up to the Convention of Paris of March 20, 1883. CHAPTER VIII. CONFERENCES OF 1880, 1883, 1886, AND 1890. SECTION 1. CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT PARIS, 1880. Mr. Evarts to Mr. Noyes. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 30, 1880. SIR: I sent you a telegram to-day in answer to yours of yesterday, and acquainted you with the designation of yourself and Mr. Putnam as delegates of the. United States to take part in the conferences and discussions of the International Industrial Property Congress, which is to be held in Paris, commencing on the 4th proximo. It now becomes necessary to supplement that telegram with brief instructions for your guidance in the matter. The aims had in view in summoning this congress are explained very clearly and fully in the note which the French minister at this capital addressed to me on the 9th day of January last, and of which a copy is herewith transmitted to you. The subjects proposed for discussion are in a marked degree important to all countries whose trade and manufacturing industries have attained high development, and this country can not but feel the liveliest interest in any conclusions which may advance and benefit its commerce and manufactures. Nevertheless, as I replied to Mr. Outrey's note of January 9, the internal regulation of those matters by the legislation of this country is so much a matter for domestic consideration and control, especially with reference to the question of trade-marks and their Federal protection under existing treaties, that this Department can not agree to submit such questions to the proposed congress, so far as the share of the United States therein is concerned, without the reservation that the conclusions of the conference on the subject must be considered as absolutely subordinate to such legislative provisions as may hereafter be made by this country. This reservation was made in full consonance with the proposal in Mr. Outrey's note, and particularly with its concluding clause, which looks upon the protocolized results of the contemplated congress as advisory merely, and referable to the several powers concerned, with a view to being subsequently completed, if approved by them, in the formal manner usual with international conventions. It is believed that the familiarity of yourself and Mr. Putnam with the industrial interests of this country and the questions of law and legislation therewith connected, will obviate the necessity for any S. Doc. 437 detailed instructions on the points proposed for discussion. Much is, perforce, left to your discretion, and it is conceived that, even in advance of the receipt of this instruction, your own good judgment will have counseled the avoidance of any commitment of this Government to plans of reform which may not consult or comport with the entire legislative freedom, which, as the French Government is already aware, is reserved by us. As you are a salaried officer of this Government, your participation in the congress is merely honorary and carries no special emoluments with it. As the congress is expected to open before this instruction reaches you, it is not deemed necessary to give you formal powers. The telegram sent to you to-day and the notification of your designation, which I have conveyed to Mr. Outrey, will doubtless serve as ample warrant for your participation in the congress. I transmit for your information and as bearing upon the reservation herein expressed a copy of a recent important decision of the Supreme Court of the United States covering, in principle, the Federal protection of trade-marks under treaty stipulations. Your report of the proceedings of the congress, with copies in duplicate, if possible, of the protocol of its sessions will be awaited with interest. I am, etc., WM. M. EVARTS. Mr. Outrey to Mr. Evarts. [Translation.] LEGATION OF FRANCE IN THE UNITED STATES, MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: A number of importers of French goods doing business in the city of New York have just called my attention to the decision pronounced on the 17th instant by the Supreme Court of the United States on the subject of trade-marks, which they consider prejudicial to their interests. Not having as yet received an authentic copy of the decision referred to, it is impossible for me to determine to what extent it is at variance with the stipulations of the treaty of April 16, 1869. The question, however, seems to me to be one of such importance that I do not hesitate to transmit to you their original communication. Be pleased to accept, etc. [Inclosure.] MAX OUTREY. Messrs. Osborn, Son & Co. to Mr. Outrey. JOHN OSBORN, SON & Co., New York, November 24, 1879. from France desire to call the attention of your excellency to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, SIR: The undersigned importers of merchandise filed on the 17th of November, 1879, in the cases of the United States v. Witteman and others, declaring unconstitutional the acts of Congress on the subject of trademarks. The opinion delivered contains this reservation: "The court wishes, however, to be understood as leaving the whole question of the treaty-making power of the General Government over trade-marks and the duty of Congress to pass any laws necessary to carry such treaties into effect untouched." Relying upon the security offered by the treaty passed between France and the United States and by the laws passed to carry it into effect, the undersigned have gone to great trouble and expense for the purpose of protecting trade-marks of French citizens whose goods they import in large quantities. By the decision above referred to large interests are jeopardized and the time and expense devoted to their protection in the past go for naught. A timely compliance by Congress with the suggestion made by the Supreme Court as to the protection of rights pledged to French citizens by the treaty of 1869 may avert great loss. Each day's delay is of importance. Until Congress takes action the owners of foreign brands and trade-marks are at the mercy of the criminals emboldened by the knowledge that the Federal courts have been stripped of the power of punishing them. Under these circumstances we do not hesitate to call upon your excellency to use your influence for the protection of the French interests thus endangered and to pray your intervention with the Department of State, in order that the President of the United States may in his message to Congress, which meets on the first Monday of December, 1879, be induced to urge upon that body the immediate passage of a law to carry into effect the treaty with France. In the confidence that this request will receive from your excellency that consideration which the importance of the subject demands and which the interests of French citizens have never failed to obtain from you, the undersigned beg to subscribe themselves, Your humble and obedient servants, John Osborn, Son & Co., 45 Beaver street; Cazade, Crooks & Reynaud, 26 South William street; E. La Montague, 53 Beaver street; Charles Graef, 65 Broad street; (an illegible signature); Fred De Bary & Co., 41 and 43 Warren street; (an illegible signature), 51 Warren street; Renauld, Francois & Co., 23 Beaver street; Edward Blackburn & Co., 10 Beaver street; Arguimbau, Wallis & Co., 29 South William street; Alfred Pacontot, 6 South William; Ives, Beecher & Co., 98 Front street; (an illegible signature), 35 Beaver street; John Duncan's Sons, 1 Union square; E. Hazard & Co., 193-198 Chambers street; H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Co., West Broadway, Reade and Hudson streets; Acker, Merrall & Condit, 130 and 132 Chambers street, Broadway and Forty-second street; C. Heerdt & Co., 93 Water street; J. H. Smith's Sons, 25 and 27 Peck slip; (an illegible signature), 12 Vesey street; (an illegible signature), 9 Whitehall street; Henry G. Schmidt & Co., 38 Beaver street; (an illegible signature), Jos. Rifflard's Sons; Park & Tilford. Mr. Outrey to Mr. Ecarts. [Translation.] LEGATION OF FRANCE IN THE UNITED STATES, MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Washington, January 9, 1880. You are aware that a congress met at Paris during the universal exposition of 1878 for the purpose of considering questions relating to industrial property. The Government of the United States was represented by three delegates at this congress, which was under the honorary presidency of the minister of agriculture and commerce. Its special object was the examination of questions having reference to patents, designs, industrial models, and trade-marks. Before adjourning the congress appointed a permanent commission, the members of which were divided into national sections, and which was charged with the execution of the resolutions which had been adopted, and especially with bringing about the meeting of an international conference having for its mission the adoption of the measures necessary to secure as far as possible the unification of the different systems of legislation relative to industrial property. This permanent commission, of which the delegates of the foreign governments represented at the congress were members, prepared a draft of a treaty to be concluded by the different adhering powers, the object of said treaty being to form of the contracting countries a union for the protection of industrial property," and to fix the general principles which should, by common consent, be rendered uniformly applicable to the matter. 66 This draft of a treaty was transmitted by the executive committee to the minister of agriculture and commerce, with a request that he would take the necessary steps to induce the Government of the Republic to take the initiative in bringing about the assembling of an international conference to carry out the work undertaken by the congress. Mr. Teisserenc de Bort thought that it was proper to submit at first to the deliberations of an international conference only drafts of resolutions rather of an executive (administratif) than of a legislative character, easy of application, and whose adoption would not require serious modifications of the laws, which are based in various countries on different principles. He consequently requested the French section, acting as an executive committee and representing the commission of the congress, to extract from the draft of the treaty to be recommended to the governments for their adhesion those provisions which seemed to it to enter more particularly into this order of ideas. That section performed the task intrusted to it, and the result of its special work was transmitted to the minister of agriculture and commerce, who, appreciating the importance of the resolutions adopted by the congress, at once recognized that they were in all respects worthy of the solicitous attention of the French Government. His excellency the minister of foreign affairs instructs me to transmit to you a volume containing the reports of the sessions of the congress, together with a pamphlet relative to the plan presented by the executive committee, and to commend them to your most serious attention. As you will observe, the commission has divided its work into five parts. The first comprises those questions which are common to all branches of industrial property; the second is devoted to patents; the third to industrial designs and models; the fourth to trade-marks; and the fifth to the commercial name. It has, moreover, taken care to distinguish in each one of these parts the provisions which it has thought could be immediately inserted in an international convention from those which, as they involve the modification of the laws of each country, must for the present be considered only in the light of recommendations to the various governments. The minister of foreign affairs instructs me, in addressing this communication to you, to beg you to inform me whether the Government of the United States is disposed to send special delegates to an international conference having for its object the examination and discussion of the conclusions of the commission. He expresses the hope that the Government of the United States, sharing the views of the congress and feeling convinced, as we are, of the high importance of the |