Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

of The Symington Company of Rochester, New York, manufacturers of railroad equipment, reported by Mr. Ernest F. Mechlin, McGill Building, Washington, D. C., to the Department, I have the honor to state that the claim of the said company for piracy of patent against the Societe Anonyme des Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux, of Familleureux, Belgium, has been satisfactorily settled and that the said company has made compensation through the payment of an adequate royalty.

The representatives of the company in Rio de Janeiro, Messrs. Norton, Megaw and Company, have acknowledged that this satisfactory result was due to the efforts of our able Commercial Attaché, Mr. Carlton Jackson, who handled the matter (in cooperation with this office) under instructions from his Department.

I have [etc.]

832.542 Symington Co./8

EDWIN V. MORGAN

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Morgan)1 No. 1355

WASHINGTON, April 5, 1928. SIR: Referring to the Department's instruction No. 1342 of March 9, 1928, in regard to the attempted infringement by the Societe Anonyme des Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux of Familleureux, Belgium, of the patents covering railway equipment designed and manufactured by The Symington Company and patented under the laws of Brazil, the Department informs you that it has received a letter from the General Counsel of The Symington Company, dated March 22, 1928, stating that the Belgium Company mentioned has recognized the validity of the Brazilian patents owned by The Symington Company and has agreed to pay that Company a royalty for the right to manufacture the equipment and to import it into Brazil.

Accordingly no further action in the matter need be taken by the Embassy.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
FRANCIS WHITE

832.542 Symington Co./10

The Ambassador in Belgium (Gibson) to the Secretary of State

No. 234

BRUSSELS, April 23, 1928.
[Received May 5.]

SIR: I have the honor to refer to the Department's instruction No. 92 of February 29, 1928 (File No. 832.542-Symington Co./1 [3])

"The same, mutatis mutandis, on the same date to the Ambassador in Belgium as instruction No. 101.

and at the same time to acknowledge the receipt of instruction No. 101 of April 5, 1928 (File No. 832.542-Symington/6 [7]),18 both relating to the attempted infringement by the Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux of Familleureux, Belgium, of the patents covering equipment designed, manufactured and patented by the Symington Company.

By note of March 20, 1928, the Embassy brought this matter to the attention of the Foreign Office, pursuant to the Department's instruction first mentioned above, and asked whether it might not be possible for the Belgian authorities to take action with a view to preventing the threatened violation by the Belgian Company of the treaty rights of the Symington Company as citizens of the United States.

The Department's second instruction was received April 17, 1928, and a note was addressed to the Foreign Office the same day, in which attention was invited to the satisfactory settlement of the matter between the two companies concerned.

I have now received under date of April 20, 1928, a reply from the Foreign Office to my first note on the subject. This reply was apparently drafted before the receipt of my second note, but as it contains information which may be of value in the event that similar cases occur in the future, I am enclosing a copy and translation of it for the records of the Department.

In acknowledging this note I have, of course, confined myself to an expression of thanks for the information furnished the Embassy and of appreciation of the Ministry's interposition with the Familleureux Company which appears to have borne satisfactory results.

I have [etc.]

HUGH GIBSON

[Enclosure-Translation]

The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the American Embassy

Direction B

Section I. B. No. 441/1480

BRUSSELS, April 20, 1928.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of note No. 116 of March 20, 1928, by which the Embassy of the United States at Brussels requested its intervention in favor of the Symington Company who makes complaint of unfair competition and misuse of its trade name on the part of the Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux.

In order to meet the stipulations of articles 8 and 10 of the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property signed at Washington June 2, 1911 the Belgian Government has 18 See supra, footnote 17.

made provision in its legislation for an action against firms or persons misusing the trade name of a foreign competitor or who have committed actions involving unfair competition.

However, it should be noted that this action for which provision is made in Belgian legislation has only a civil character and that as a consequence thereof injured persons or firms should themselves take the initiative in bringing such action. It is not the same insofar as concerns trade marks, as a penal action is provided in such cases in accordance with the law of April 1, 1879.

On the other hand, contrary to the opinion which the note of the Embassy of the United States of America appears to indicate, the facts invoked by the Symington Company against the Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux do not constitute a violation of the International Convention. The Symington Company may invoke the provisions of this Convention in order to demand their judicial application and it is for the company to take the initiative in citing the Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux before the Courts. The matter is thus one of private law.

From the foregoing considerations it results that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not, in this matter, any means of constraint and that it can only interpose its good offices in order to obtain eventually a friendly settlement.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been careful to invite the serious attention of the Directorate of the Société Anonyme de Construction de Familleureux to the claim of the Symington Company and has moreover asked the company to inform it of the measures which it intends to take with a view to putting an end as soon as possible to the criticisms resulting from the attitude of the said company.

BULGARIA

DISINCLINATION OF THE UNITED STATES TO PARTICIPATE IN AGREEMENT REGARDING APPORTIONMENT OF BULGARIAN REPARATION PAYMENTS

474.00 R 29/116

The Greek Minister (Simopoulos) to the Secretary of State

No. 841

[Translation]

WASHINGTON, May 21, 1928. The Minister of Greece presents his compliments to His Excellency, the Secretary of State, and has the honor, by direction of his Government, to lay the following before him:

As Your Excellency is aware, according to Article 23 of the Agreement of January 14, 1925, between the Allied and Associated Powers, concerning apportionment under the Dawes Plan, which Article has to do with Bulgarian payments, the said payments are distributed, up to December 31, 1926, in the ratios specified by Article 2 of the Spa Protocol. A new apportionment is contemplated after

that date.

Pending such new apportionment, the amounts available have been deposited by the Reparation Commission in the National City Bank of New York, at the interest of 2% per annum.

In the same bank there has been deposited an amount of $31,500 derived from liquidated Bulgarian war matériel. At the suggestion of the economic offices of the Reparation Commission, the question has been raised of converting these available moneys into short-term, interest-bearing securities, such, for instance, as United States Treasury Certificates of Indebtedness.

The Government of the Republic has the honor to request of the Powers signatory to the Agreement referred to above, that steps be taken, either by calling a Conference, or by any other method judged to be proper, to effect a new apportionment of Bulgarian payments.

It reserves the right to request also that the share of Greece, set by the Spa Agreement at 12.7%, be increased on the strength of new factors which it will bring forward at the proper time and place, especially on account of the amounts awarded to it by the Arbitrator

1 Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. II, p. 160.

2

Signed July 16, 1920; ibid., 1920, vol. 1, pp. 406, 407.

appointed by Mr. Ador, or which were due to it under the head of damages during the pre-belligerent period from October 11, 1915 to June 27, 1917, in accordance with paragraph 4 of the Annex to Part IX, Section IV of the Treaty of Neuilly, and with the decision of The Hague Court, on September 12, 1924,5 bringing that category of claims within the aggregate reparations contemplated by Articles 121 and 122 of the Treaty of Neuilly.

474.00 R 29/116

The Secretary of State to the Greek Minister (Simopoulos)

The Secretary of State presents his compliments to the Minister of Greece and, in acknowledging the receipt of his note of May 21, 1928, communicating the request of the Greek Government that the Powers signatory to the agreement of January 14, 1925, regarding the distribution of the Dawes annuities, proceed to a new apportionment of Bulgarian payments, has the honor to inform him that the matter of the formal relationship of the United States Government to the proposed action is receiving the consideration of this Government. Inasmuch, however, as this Government does not participate in the distribution of Bulgarian reparation payments, it desires in no way to prejudice the consideration of the request of the Greek Government by the other Governments to which it has been addressed. WASHINGTON, June 12, 1928.

474.00 R 29/122

The Ambassador in France (Herrick) to the Secretary of State Reparation

PARIS, June 28, 1928.
[Received July 7.]

5a

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department's letter, dated June 12, 1928 (EA 474.00 R 29/116), transmitting for my information a translation of a note, dated May 21, 1928, from the Greek Minister at Washington requesting that the Powers signatory to the Agreement of January 14, 1925, agree to a new division of Bulgarian Reparation payments, together with a copy of the Department's reply of June 12th.

The Department states that it will probably not desire to sign any agreement which may eventually be reached for the distribution of Bulgarian payments, and invites my comments in the matter.

Gustave Ador, President of the Swiss Confederation for 1919 and afterward president of the International Red Cross at Geneva.

[ocr errors]

Signed Nov. 27, 1919; text in S. Doc. 7, 67th Cong., 1st sess., p. 113.

Collection of Judgments, Publications of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Series A, No. 3, p. 9.

5 Not printed.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »