(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[9184]
No. 1.
[March 21.]
SECTION ZEC
13823
630
Sir,
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.--(Received March 21.) EC?
P: 19 APR 07 Board of Trade, March 20, 1907. I AM directed by the Board of Trade to refer to your letter of the 2nd ultimo, transmitting a copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Peking, forwarding correspondence with Messrs. A. Rose and Co. on the subject of the piracy for use in China of the "crocodile" mark of Sir Elkanah Armitage and Sons (Limited), by a Japanese merchant in Osaka, and asking for the Board's views on the points raised therein.
In reply, I am to state that the Board are of opinion that the case is one in which a representation setting out the facts might properly be made to the Japanese Government.
It might further be suggested that, if the present law in that country does not provide a remedy, it would be desirable for it to be amended so as to make it a criminal offence for any one to register a mark belonging to another for the purpose of black- mailing the true owner, and enabling any mark to be struck off the register by a competent Tribunal on its being proved to belong to another.
It might also be pointed out that it is in the interests of the public, no less than in that of honest traders, that the Trade-mark Law in every country of the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property should contain some provision which will enable the registration of trade-marks in the names of persons other than their true owners to be cancelled on due cause being shown.
In this connection the Board would call attention to the reply of the Japanese Government, dated the 1st March, 1906, to the representations made to them in accord- ance with the Foreign Office instructions of the 7th July and 2nd September, 1905, on the subject of the protection of industrial property.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
T. W. P. BLOMEFIELD.
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