disclose even any substantial part of the trade-marks in use. The records of the Patent Office do not show one one-hundredth of existing trade-marks. What marks are being used is the important question to be answered, because by the common law it is use alone that creates the right. And this is what I am coming to. It should be recognized that the important thing to know is, what trade-marks are being used, how long, upon what goods, where, and by whom? There should be some government department or bureau where this information could be obtained. This should be the purpose of a registration statute. Our present law in this respect is a failure. In its place there could be established a recording office with no judicial or quasi-judicial functions, no interference, opposition or cancellation proceedings, but where all trade-marks used in interstate or foreign commerce should be required to be filed with complete sets of labels, the name and address of the claimant, a statement of how title was acquired, an abstract of successions, a statement of the goods on which the mark is used, and the date of first use. The ⚫ recording fee should be nominal, say two dollars or less. Registration could in a measure be enforced by providing that no action should be maintained in any federal court with respect to any trade-mark unless it had been registered. Renewal should be required at, say five-year intervals, so that only live marks would appear upon the register. Such a statute would furnish a place where information covering trade-marks in use would be readily accessible. Appended hereto is a tentative draft of such

an act.

If a trade-mark act in a common-law country is to be of any value to the trade-mark owner or to the commercial community, all marks ought to be registered under it so that any person desiring to adopt a trade-mark can have somewhere where he can go and find out what marks are actually in use, and upon what goods. There is no such place in this country now. It is desirable for a trade-mark owner to have his title to his trademarks spread of record somewhere exactly as the title to a piece of real estate is. Then, when the problem of the adoption of a new mark comes up, facts will be available so that the person desiring to adopt it will know what is actually in use by his competitors, and what he must avoid, thus obviating the common and always embarrassing experience of exhausting every possible

present source of information as to marks in use, expending large sums in preliminary work, only to find when the product is put upon the market, adverse trade-mark rights crop up which must be either purchased or conceded.

There is no necessity of providing in such an act for remedies for infringement. The common law has long furnished relief that is adequate, or if something more drastic is required it would be a simple matter to make goods bearing counterfeited or imitated trade-marks contraband of interstate commerce, provide for their seizure and penalize their shipment. In short, the Food and Drugs Act could be extended to apply to merchandise generally along the lines of the English Merchandise Marks Act, and trade-mark infringement treated as misbranding-as in fact it is. The reasons which have made the marks and labels used in interstate and foreign commerce, upon foods and drugs, the subject of a Federal penal statute apply equally to the marks and labels used in such commerce upon merchandise generally.

A statute along the lines suggested would furnish information as to trade-marks in use, which is the only matter of consequence, and would make infringement a misdemeanor, as it ought to be. The only people to suffer would be infringers who now seek to profit by preying on the trade-marks of more successful traders and lawyers of a certain type, properly classed with trade-mark pirates, who now make a living by fostering the abuses made possible by the present act. The infringer, of course, deserves no sympathy-the lawyers who would be hurt by the repeal of the present act may be expected to complain bitterly. One is reminded of Mr. Vholes. Dickens' description of him in Bleak House, his respectability and his success in blocking reform can be reread with profit.

TENTATIVE DRAFT OF AN ACT REQUIRING THE DEPOSIT OF.

TRADE-MARKS.

An act to require the deposit of trade and other marks used in commerce with foreign nations or among the several states, or with Indian Tribes and for other purposes.

(1) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled that all trade or identifying marks, names, labels or devices attached to or used in connection with

any commodity or in the business of any person, firm, corporation or association, in commerce among the several states of the United States, with foreign nations or with Indian Tribes, shall be deposited in the Patent Office as hereinafter provided:

(2) The depositor shall file in the Patent Office a statement in writing, signed and verified, specifying the name, citizenship, domicile, street and post-office address of the depositor, a statement of all goods upon or in connection with which the trade or identifying mark, name, label or device is used; or if not used upon goods, then a description of the business in which the same is used; a statement of the mode in which the same is applied to or affixed to the goods or used in connection therewith or in the said business; the length of time during which the trade or identifying mark, name, label or device has been used, and a statement of how title thereto was derived; the depositor shall file with such statement twenty copies or facsimilies of such trade or identifying mark, name, label or device as actually used; shall pay into the Treasury of the United States the sum of Two Dollars and shall comply with such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Patents.

(3) The Commissioner of Patents may at any time require the user of any trade or identifying mark, name, label or device in commerce among the several states or with foreign nations or with Indian tribes to deposit such trade or identifying mark, name, label or device, as herein provided, and after said demand shall have been made, in default of the deposit thereof within three months from any part of the United States, except the outlying territorial possessions of the United States, or from any foreign country, the user of such trade or identifying mark, name, label, or device shall be liable to a fine of one hundred dollars.

(4) No action or proceeding shall be maintained for infringement of any trade or identifying mark, name, label or device required by this act to be deposited until the provisions hereof with respect to deposit shall have been complied with.

(5) All trade or identifying marks, names, labels or devices required by this act to be deposited shall be redeposited every five years and failure so to redeposit shall be deemed an abandonment thereof.

(6) The Commissioner of Patents may make classifications, rules and regulations.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

CRIMINAL LAW SECTION

A meeting for the organization of the Criminal Law Section of the American Bar Association was held on Tuesday, August 24, in the Circuit Court of Appeals room in the Federal Building.

Edwin M. Abbott, Esq., of Philadelphia, Chairman of the Special Committee on Organization, presided and read a paper on "Modern Penology."

(For address of Mr. Abbott, see page 425.)

Circuit Attorney Lawrence McDaniel, of St. Louis, welcomed the members and in an extended talk made a recommendation that in all criminal cases the verdict of a jury should be rendered in accordance with the vote of nine or more of its members. This matter was referred to the Council for further consideration next year. He also said that something should be done relative to delays in trial. No delays should be allowed for more than thirty days, he urged, unless for illness of indispensable parties. Another paper was presented by Judge A. H. Reid, of Wausau, Wis., on "Interstate Extradition for Extra-Territorial Crimes."

(For address of Judge Reid, see page 432.)

A complete set of by-laws was adopted which was submitted to the Executive Committee of the American Bar Association for their approval.

Dean Wigmore, of the Northwestern University Law School, Chicago, Ill., made a motion that two committees be appointed to report next year, one on Criminal Law and the other on Criminal Procedure. This was authorized.

At the election which followed, the following officers were chosen for the ensuing year: Chairman, Ira E. Robinson, of Charlestown, W. Va.; Vice-Chairman, William O. Hart, of New Orleans, La.; Secretary and Treasurer, Edwin M. Abbott, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Council, Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Harvard

University Law School; John G. Buchanan, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Frank G. Drenning, of Topeka, Kan.; W. H. Clifton, Aberdeen, Miss.; F. B. Crosley, of Chicago, Ill.; Lawrence McDaniel, of St. Louis, Mo.; Earl C. Arnold, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Thomas J. O'Donnell, of Denver, Colo.

After the meeting adjourned the Council organized and elected Roscoe Pound as Chairman. The Secretary outlined a plan of securing the interest of lawyers generally in this Section, which was approved.

EDWIN M. ABBOTT, Secretary.