[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[25170]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received July 29.)
(No. 276.) Sir,
636
[July 29.]
SECTION 5.
Peking, June 11, 1907. MR. LOWTHER has forwarded to me a copy of his despatch to you, No. 103 of the 10th May, on the subject of the trade-marks question as between China and Japan, and I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy of my reply,
The apprehension expressed in the Japanese press that Chinese will take advantage of the postponement of Trade-marks Regulations in China to copy and counterfeit the trade-marks of Japanese goods appears to me to be unfounded, for counterfeiting by Chinese, which the Trade-marks Regulations, now under discussion, are designed to prevent, is practised only to a very limited extent, and the practice, such as it is, is aided by the manufacture in Japan of imitations of marks the property of Europeans and Americans, not, so far as I am aware, of Japanese.
No reply has yet been received from the Wai-wu Pu to my note of the 28th May, copy of which was transmitted in my despatch No. 247 of the 28th May; but in the event, which is unlikely, of their reverting to the draft Regulations of 1905, it will be desirable to take into consideration the numerous amendments to that draft which have since been received from the Manchester and other Chambers of Commerce. The introduction of further amendments was provided for by Sir Ernest Satow, who in his note to the Wai-wu Pu of the 17th August, 1905, declining to accept the amend- ments to the draft put forward by the Board of Commerce, stated that there were other necessary modifications or amendments, which it would be useless to discuss until fundamental principles were agreed upon.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Mr. Lowther.
Sir,
Peking, June 1, 1907. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 17th ultimo, transmitting copy of a despatch which you have addressed to His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on the subject of the trade-marks question as between China and Japan.
The apprehension existing among Japanese that Chinese will take advantage of the postponement of Trade-marks Regulations in this country to copy and counterfeit the trade-marks of Japanese goods appears to me to have little foundation in fact. That imitations of foreign trade-marks exist in China is undoubtedly true; but complaints are few, an dit has always been, and still is, possible to obtain injunctions by the Chinese authorities against the perpetrators of these malpractices. Japanese are themselves in many cases responsible for counterfeiting in China, and I need only mention cigarette wrappers and labels printed in Japan so like as to be almost undistinguishable from those used on cigarettes of British manufacture.
The anxiety of Japanese traders for an early issue of Trade-marks Regulations in China is, I am informed by the Commercial Attaché to His Majesty's Legation, probably due to the hope that as soon as these Regulations come into force they will be able to re-register and obtain proprietary rights in China for counterfeit and imitation foreign marks which have been already registered in Japan and await introduction into this country, and it therefore seems desirable that a reciprocal trade-marks
* Mr. Lowther, No. 103, May 10, 1907.
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