CO129-348 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [7-10] — Page 349

P Y.

fidential.

2890/1908.

Sir,

TREC

C. O.

34502

RnX 21 SEP 08

345

Government House,

Hongkong, 10th. August, 1908.

A

I have the honour to inform Your Excellency

that the local Committee of the China Association, which re-

-presents most of the leading British firms in this Colony, has

had under its confidential consideration the proposed Convention

between His Majesty's Government and the Japanese Government and the Convention concluded between the United States Government

and the Japanese Goverment for the mutual protection of each

country's registered Trade Marks in China and Corea.

2.

It is the opinion of the Committee that by

signing the proposed Convention the British Government would be

conferring on Japanese subjects a far greater measure of

protection that the Japanese Government could afford to British

subjects in the present unsatisfactory state of Japanese law in

relation to Trade Mark Registration. The members of the Com-

-mittee therefore view with concern the idea of concluding the

Convention as it stands, or any Convention on these lines,

until Japanese law has been altered to bring it more into con-

-formity with British law, and they hope that in the meantime no

consent will be given to any rules drawn up by China which would

permit of Japanese pirated Trade Marks acquiring proprietary

rights in China.

3.

In this connection I would remind Your

Excellency of the view expressed by Sir Pelham Warren that the

conclusion of a Convention with Japan for the mutual protection

of Trade Marks in China will not result in preventing the lige

of imitated marks unless the Japanese law is amended in such a

way