tention to present objections to various features of the bill. The bill was introduced by Senator Thomas as S. 3043 in the 76th Congress on January 8, 1940.

Meanwhile, on April 11, 1939, at the behest of Senator Thomas, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations had again reported favorably on ratification of the 1928 Rome revision of the Berne Convention (Ex. Rept. No. 2, 76th Cong.), but further action on the report was deferred pending the necessary amendments of the law on which the Shotwell committee was working.

No hearings were held on the "Shotwell bill" introduced by Senator Thomas. According to a report in the January 24, 1940, issue of Variety, a leading journal of the entertainment industries, the bill was favored by the authors and book publishers, but opposed by the radio broadcasters, motion picture producers, periodical publishers, and record manufacturers.

The Register of Copyrights, who had not participated in the activities of the Shotwell committee, submitted his views on the bill at the request of Senator Bone, then chairman of the Committee on Patents, and expressed his opposition to many features of the bill. No further action was taken on the bill.

SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS

It may be of interest to mention briefly the major issues on which the groups concerned differed during the efforts between 1924 and 1940 to revise the law.

Among the most important differences were those concerning provisions deemed essential for adherence to the 1928 Rome Revision of the Berne Convention: Automatic copyright in the author upon creation of the work (i.e., without formalities such as notice, deposit of copies, and registration); removal of the requirement for domestic manufacture of foreign books and periodicals; retroactive copyright protection of foreign works; the duration of copyright for the life of the author and a period of years after his death; copyright in oral speeches; and the "moral” rights of authors. Other important issues of controversy were proposals for divisible copyright (i.e., the assignment of separate rights); the removal of the "compulsory license" for the recording of music; the removal or diminution of the statutory minimum damages; the protection of "innocent" infringers; the removal of the privilege of scholars and libraries to import copies; and the restriction of performance rights. In the middle 1930's the proposals to extend copyright protection to industrial designs and to recorded performances of music opened by new areas of controversy. It may be said in general that the major controversies were rooted in the conflicting interests of the various author and publisher groups on the one hand, and the users of copyright material-such as broadcasters, motion picture producers, and record manufacturers-on the other hand. Each effort to revise the law resolved itself into an attempt to reconcile this conflict of interests through extended discussion and negotiation with the various groups concerned in order to work out compromise solutions to the controversial issues. Such an attempt was successful in the enactment of the 1909 revision and almost succeeded with the Vestal bill in 1931.

INDIVIDUAL AMENDMENTS

Between 1926 and 1941, five acts were passed amending individual provisions of the copyright law: Act of July 3, 1926, 44 Stat. 818; act of May 23, 1928, 45 Stat. 713; act of July 31, 1939, 53 Stat. 1142; act of March 15, 1940, 54 Stat. 51; and act of September 25, 1941, 55 Stat. 732.

III. REVISION FOR ADHERENCE TO THE UNIVERSAL COPYRIGHT

CONVENTION

After World War II, with the further expansion of the foreign market for U.S. copyright material, a movement for more effective international copyright relations was revived. It was now clear that the United States would not adhere to the Berne Convention. As stated in the report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations dealing with the Universal Copyright Convention (Ex. Rept. No. 5, 83d Cong., June 11, 1954):

[The United States] has found it impossible to subscribe to the [Berne] Convention ✶ ✶✶ because it embodied concepts at variance with American Copyright Law. These concepts involved such matters as the automatic recognition of copyright without any formalities, the protection of "moral” rights and the retroactivity of copyright protection with respect to works which are already in the public domain in the United States. This revival of copyright under the retroactivity doctrine would have worked considerable prejudice to American motion picture, music, and publishing houses ***. Finally it was claimed that Berne's protection of "oral” works, such as speeches, would have conflicted with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which refers only to "writings" as material to be protected.

The new effort was directed at preparing a new international convention to which both the member countries and the nonmembers of the Berne Union might adhere. In September 1947, an intergovernmental committee of copyright experts assembled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at a meeting in Paris, proposed that UNESCO undertake a survey of the international copyright relations of all the countries of the world. Beginning in 1948, UNESCO assembled information on the international copyright situation in all countries by means of questionnaires sent to the various countries. UNESCO submitted its report to an intergovernmental Committee of Experts which met in Paris in July 1949. This second Committee of Experts proposed the preparation of a new Universal Copyright Convention and formulated the basic principles for such a convention. This proposal and statement of basic principles was then sent to the governments of all countries for comment. The replies of the governments were submitted to a third Committee of Experts meeting in Washington in October and November 1950, and this Committee developed a revised and more detailed statement of principles to be embodied in the new convention. This second statement of principles was circulated among all the governments; and on the basis of their comments, a fourth Committee of Experts met in Paris in June 1951 and prepared a preliminary draft of the convention which was submitted to all the countries. A special committee of representatives of the pan-American countries met in Washington early in 1952 to consider the effect of the new draft convention on copyright relations among the American Republics.

An Intergovernmental Conference was held in Geneva in August and September 1952 at which the Universal Copyright Convention was drafted in final form. The new Convention was signed by 40 countries including the United States, and was open to adherence by other countries as well.

Throughout this process of formulating the Convention, the Librarian of Congress, the Register of Copyrights, and the State Department, working through a Panel on International Copyright, met and consulted with representatives of all the various interests in the United States concerned with copyright. This Panel was established as an auxiliary of the State Department's U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, with the Librarian of Congress as chairman of the Panel. At each stage of the development of the Convention, before and after each meeting of the international Committee of Experts, the views of all the interests were secured and exchanged at meetings of the Panel and through informal conferences and correspondence carried on by the State Department and the Register of Copyrights. From 1948 to 1953 fourteen meetings of the Panel were held. In addition to more than 60 representatives of the various industries and interests concerned, representatives of other Government agencies, including the Justice, Commerce, and Labor Departments, attended some of the Panel meetings. On the basis of these meetings and other exchanges of views, the position of the U.S. Government was developed before each meeting of the international Committee of Experts and before the Geneva Conference in 1952. Every effort was made to secure the agreement of the various interests on the position to be taken by the U.S. Government at each stage of the development of the Convention. The Librarian of Congress, the Register of Copyrights, a representative of the State Department, and some of the attorneys representing various interests participated in the several international meetings of experts. At the Geneva Conference in 1952 which completed the Convention, the U.S. delegation consisted of the Librarian of Congress as chairman, the Register of Copyrights, a representative of the State Department, two Congressmen, and four leading copyright attorneys who represented a diversity of private interests. The position taken by the U.S. delegation at the conference had the unanimous approval of the members of the delegation on every point.

On June 10, 1953, President Eisenhower submitted the Universal Copyright Convention to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification (Ex. M, 83d Cong.). Ratification required major changes in the copyright law to make it conform with the Convention in respect to the protection afforded works created by citizens of, or first published in, other member countries. A bill to amend the law accordingly was drafted by the Copyright Office in collaboration with the State Department, and was introduced by Representative Crumpacker (H.R. 6616), Representative Reed (H.R. 6670), and Senator Langer (S. 2559) during July and August 1953.

On March 15 and 17 and April 9, 1954, hearings on the House bills. were held before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. On April 7 and 8, 1954, hearings on the Convention and the Senate. bill were held before a joint subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees. At these hearings, the Convention and the bills were supported by representatives of the authors, com

posers, book publishers, music publishers, periodical publishers, bar associations, libraries, scholars, radio and television broadcasters, record manufacturers, motion picture producers and exhibitors, and photographers. Adoption of the Convention and bills was also urged by the Librarian of Congress, the Register of Copyrights, and representatives of the State, Commerce, and Labor Departments.

The Convention and bills were opposed only by the printing and binding trades unions of the American Federation of Labor because of the removal of the requirement for domestic manufacture of books by foreign authors published in other member countries of the Convention. The removal of this requirement was essential for adherence to the Convention. The Congress of Industrial Organizations, however, filed a statement favoring adoption of the Convention and bills. After the hearings, representatives of some of the motion picture producers indicated their objection to one feature of the Convention; but as indicated in the Senate report (No. 1936, 83d Cong.), they subsequently withdrew their objection and favored adoption of the Convention and bills.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations reported favorably on ratification of the Convention on June 11, 1954 (Ex. Rept. No. 5, 83d Cong.), and on June 25, 1954, ratification of the Convention was approved by a 65-3 vote of the Senate.

On July 19, 1954, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported S. 2559 favorably (S. Rept. No. 1936, 83d Cong.). On August 3, 1954, the House Judiciary Committee reported H.R. 6616 favorably (H. Rept. No. 2608, 83d Cong.), and on that same day the House passed the bill. On August 18, 1954, the Senate passed H.R. 6616. It was signed by the President on August 31, 1954, as Public Law 743. On December 6, 1954, the President deposited with UNESCO the instrument ratifying the Convention.

The almost unanimous support of the Convention and bill by the many diverse interests concerned, was summarized by Senator Hickenlooper, in presenting the Convention to the Senate on June 25, 1954, as follows:

Few treaties which have been presented to the Senate have had such widespread endorsement by so many different elements of the American public as this Convention has received * * The Convention has been drafted with the greatest of care and skill. Its clauses were painstakingly developed in extensive consultations between copyright experts here and abroad * * *. The result of the [Geneva] Conference was a document which not only embodies the most acceptable concepts of American and European practice, but which recognizes the basic principles governing the Law of Copyright in the United States.

INDIVIDUAL AMENDMENTS

No copyright legislation was enacted during the years 1942 to 1946. By the act of July 30, 1947 (61 Stat. 652), the Copyright Act of 1909, as amended, was codified and enacted into positive law as title 17 of the United States Code. Since then five acts have been passed amending individual provisions of the copyright law, some of considerable substantive importance: Act of April 27, 1948, 62 Stat. 202; act of June 3, 1949, 63 Stat. 153; act of October 31, 1951, 65 Stat. 710; act of July 17, 1952, 66 Stat. 752; and act of April 13, 1954, 68 Stat. 52.

The act of August 31, 1954, 61 Stat. 655, amending the copyright law to implement the Universal Copyright Convention, has already been mentioned.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE

REVISION OF PATENT AND TRADEMARK LAWS

In a number of respects the patent and trademark laws parallel the copyright law. The patent and copyright laws are founded on the same provision of the U.S. Constitution, article I, section 8, eighth clause; the trademark law is founded on article I, section 8, third clause (the commerce clause). All three laws deal with intangible property rights of a special character. All three are under the jurisdiction of the same subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the respective Houses of Congress.

In connection with the history of copyright law revision, therefore, it may be enlightening to summarize briefly the history of the recent revisions of the patent and trademark laws.

I. PATENT LAW REVISION

The first patent law of the United States, like our first copyright law, was enacted in 1790 by the First Congress. Aside from amendments of particular items, general revisions of the patent law were made in 1836 (5 Stat. 117), in 1861 (12 Stat. 246), and in 1870 (16 Stat. 198). After 1870 there was no general revision until the recent act of July 19, 1952 (66 Stat. 792) which enacted the new patent law as title 35 of the United States Code.11

For some years prior to 1952 the patent bar had been urging that the existing law-basically the law of 1870 with a number of amendments had become outmoded and should be revised in a number of respects. At the same time, the codification of the patent statutes was being contemplated as a part of the general program for codification of all the laws of the United States. These two movements came to a head in 1949 when the Subcommittee on Patents of the House Judiciary Committee, under the chairmanship of Representative Bryson, inaugurated a comprehensive study of the patent law with a view to its complete revision and codification. The subcommittee enlisted the aid of Mr. P. J. Federico of the Patent Office to assemble reports on prior laws and legislative proposals and suggestions which had been made by various groups for changes in the law, and to draft preliminary alternative proposals for a new law as a basis for discussion. In February 1950, these reports and proposals were circulated by the subcommittee to a great number of patent attorneys and others interested for their comments and suggestions.

"The history of this act of 1952 is summarized in the hearings on H.R. 3760, 82d Cong., June 13-15, 1951, and in the House and Senate reports on H.R. 7794, 82d Cong. (H. Rept. No. 1923; S. Rept. No. 1979). Its history is also summarized in pp. 6-9 of the "Commentary on the New Patent Act" by P. J. Federico, Examiner-in-Chief of the U.S. Patent Office, appearing in title 35 of the United States Code Annotated.