CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 71

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[19297]

со

23539

RECO

REGE18 JUL ||

No. 1.

Mr. Law to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 20.)

[May 20.]

SECTION 3.

Sir,

Birkbeck Bank Chambers, London, May 17, 1911. ACCORDING to information which appears to have been given by the British vice-consul at Shanghai in January 1909, or shortly before, patents could be registered at the British consulate in Shanghai, and a copy of such registration was given to the Chinese authorities. The vice-consul appears to have stated further that no legal protection was obtained by this means, but that, so far, the Chinese Government had been very prompt in preventing Chinese subjects from adopting registered trade-marks, and it was probable that they would be equally prompt in preventing the infringement of patents. According to a recent book on foreign patent law, a communication has been received from His Majesty's consul general at Shanghai to the effect that no special protection could be claimed for British patents, but that in some instances specifications have been sent by inventors to the consul- general in Shanghai, and filed at the consulate, duplicates having been sent to the Chinese authorities for record, and, further, that the only advantage that could be gained by such registration was that in the event of infringement of any patent filed in this way the injured party might be in a better position to approach the Chinese authorities on the subject. but the consul-general appears to have said that the authorities would, in his opinion, he willing, as a rule, to forbid the infringement whether the patent was recorded at the consulate or not.

These two statements certainly agree to some extent. but I do not understand the consul-general's expression as to the forbidding of infringement, unless it be that the infringement of any British patent would be infringed [sic] whether any notification of the patent had been entered in China or at the consulate-general in Shanghai.

A client of mine, resident in Australia, has obtained au Australian patent for an invention, in respect of which he has also obtained a British patent dated under the international and colonial arrangements as of the date of the corresponding Australian patent, and he desires to obtain patent protection in China for the invention in question.

I should be greatly obliged if you would inform me what is the best course to pursue in the circumstances, and in particular I should be glad to know whether, in your opinion, it would be sufficient to lodge at the British cousulate in Shanghai a copy of the specification filed in Australia or in England, and whether such copy should be certified, or whether the document filed should be a certified copy of the actual letters patent obtained in Australia and of the specification thereof, or of the letters patent obtained in England and of the specification thereof. In any case, I presume that a copy of the actual document filed at the British consulate in Shanghai, if such be the proper place, should be delivered to the Chinese authorities, but whether this document should be a certified copy or not I do not know. By "certified " I mean, of course, certified by the head of the Patent Office in Australia or England, as the case may be.

In another case of the same inventor, no patents have yet been granted, as far as I am aware, in this country or in Australia, although applications for patents in both countries have been lodged. I should be greatly obliged if you would inform me whether, in that case, in order to obtain protection in China, copies of the English or Australian specification should be deposited in Shanghai, and forwarded to the Chinese authorities, or whether it would be necessary to wait until a patent had been granted in Australia or in this country, and then to proceed as in the other case.

I have, &c.

J. A. LAW.

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