Hayashi that "if the present law in Japan 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 blackmailing 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.”
4. I am sending a copy of this despatch to His Majesty's Minister at Peking and to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
I have, &c.
(Signed) F. D. LUGARD.
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[32540]
No. 1.
10
[September 19.]
C.O.
SECTION 1.
37614
REC P. 15 001 08
F
(No. 207.) Sir,
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey-(Received September 19.)
Tokio, August 22, 1908.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 190 of the 25th ultimo and to inform you that, in accordance with the instructions contained therein, I have presented the counter-draft of the Trade-marks Convention to General Viscount Terauchi with a view to its acceptance by the Japanese Government.
I would, however, venture to point out that, as the Americans have given way with regard to the cession of extra-territorial rights in the matter of trade-marks in Corea and have conceded other points in dispute, it is not improbable that the Japanese Government will refuse to accept the counter-draft without some modification.
I have at the same time asked for specific information with regard to the amount of protection afforded by Japanese law to trade names and hong marks.
I shall also endeavour to obtain a declaration from the Japanese Government in the sense referred to in your despatch, but I have the honour to state that the American Embassy did not succeed in their efforts to secure a declaration of this kind from the Japanese Government,
In its place they had to be content with an exchange of notes on the subject, of which I have the honour to forward copies, which have been communicated to me confidentially by the American Chargé d'Affaires.
33
You will observe that the substance of the Japanese note is very similar to that of their reply to me in connection with the "Crocodile case, which formed the inclosure to my No. 194 of the 1st instant.
I have, &c.
(Signed) CLAUDE M. MACDONALD.
Sir,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Mr. Jay to Mr. Root.
July 1, 1908.
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copies of notes exchanged between Mr. O'Brien and Count Hayashi on the subject of the registration and protection of trade-marks, with special reference to the recent negotiations.
The meaning of Count Hayashi's note, stripped of technicalities, appears to be that any registered trade-mark which is similar to the known trade-mark of another, may be cancelled within three years, on the ground of such similarity; or it may be cancelled at any time thereafter if the registered mark is calculated to work fraud upon the public, as all such imitations naturally are.
This reply of Count Hayashi, taken with other official and semi-official statements of a like nature, seems to warrant the belief that the Japanese Government intends, by a broad construction of the existing law, to cancel or reject all wrongful registrations, no matter how long they may have been registered.
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. P. JAY,
Chargé d'Affaires.
1944 -1]