MERICAN inventors

and

A manufacturers who have had

reason to be more or less perturbed regarding the status of their patents and trade-marks in Germany, are quite naturally more than ever at sea in this regard since the declaration of a state of war. German law prescribes the manufacture of the patented articles in Germany. Since the beginning of the war this obligation was more and more difficult of fulfilment, until, during the past year, it became in a great many cases an impossibility.

Then there is also the obligation of paying annual fees within certain definite periods, with the alternative of the voiding of the patent rights. But how, it is asked, can an American pay fees to the German government without violating the rigid prescriptions of the law which prohibit trading with an enemy government? The problem is a perplexing one, especially as the laws on patents and trade-marks make no provision for the conservation of owners' right in such cases.

There is reason, however, to believe that a good deal of the anxiety is misplaced, which is being felt over the possibility of Germany engaging, when peace comes, in a "frightfulness" campaign of trade war and running amuck through all the rules and conventions regarding the international respect of patents and trade-marks. The present writer had a part in the perennial struggle to uphold in Germany the foreigners' property rights in inventions and has been engaged in field work on similar lines in other European countries. He has had the opportunity to glean some specific information on the attitude of the belligerent nations in Europe with regard to the patents and trade-marks of alien enemies.

Although it is not generally known, an exception has been made in Europe to the laws forbidding trading with the enemy, precisely in favor of the protection of rights to patents, trademarks and registrations.

In the early months of the war Germany revealed a disposition to be guided by the action of France in the matter of handling patentlaw questions during the period of the war. France, indeed, has been looked to as the leader in formulating war-time rules for unforeseen questions or problems whose solution had not been pre-determined, and this not merely by France's allies, but also by her enemies, and a new tribute of admiration to the great Republic is evoked by the proofs of her marvelous capacity for organization in the most critical hour that any nation could face.

FRANCE TOOK ACTION EARLY IN WAR

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At the time, during the first weeks of the war, when the whole army system was being re-organized with the marvelous thoroughness and effectiveness which led to the Battle of the Marne, French statesmen calmly attending to re-organization in other lines, in civic and disciplinary matters. The nations of Europe awaited France's decision on the liquor question, the censorship, the regulation of the press, the mobilization of civilians, the special rules on trade and commerce and a hundred other matters of vital importance. And Germany paid to France the flattery of imitation by the adoption of many of the prescriptions that France had formulated.

It was on August 14, 1914, that the French authorities in charge of war rulings reached the question of patents and trade-marks, and on that date a decree was

issued suspending the payment to enemy governments of all annual fees on patents without exception. Germany had been waiting for the French ruling on the point and at once took action.

The German Minister of Commerce issued a circular notifying all German subjects of the French decree and of the fact that they could rely on the French decree for their protection in any eventual litigation with France or her allies on questions of patents, and instructing them to suspend the payment of all patent fees. The Minister's circular was a carefully worded document which attracted the attention of the French authorities, as it argued the assumption by France of all responsibility for unchaining a prospective trade war in which a valuable form of property rights would be the object of piratical attack.

The French Commission on Commerce and Industry considered the matter of sufficient importance to broach the question of a special agreement being reached between the Allies and the Central Powers on the subject of patents and trade-marks. Through the International Bureau at Berne, Germany was informed that her attitude, as expressed in the circular of the Minister of Commerce, was not justified by the action which France had taken and that it would not be acceptable, except on condition of reciprocity, that is that French inventors and business men would not risk the loss of their right to patents and trademarks in Germany in case they did not pay the annual dues.

It was in her reply on this point that Germany intimated that she was concerned in obtaining from France an agreement on the patent question and that, far from seeking a pretext for reckless conduct in the matter, she was willing to make advances to prove that she desired to see international agreements on patents and trademarks lived up to, both during and after the war. Having received a conciliatory reply to her proposal, Germany, in November.

1914, formally authorized German subjects to pay the annual fees on their patents in enemy countries without risk of being proceeded against by the German government for trading with the enemy. Obviously this did not prove of much practical value to the individuals interested, as there was no way of paying fees to the French government or to any of the other allied governments, since the prohibition against trading with the enemy as decreed by them included denial of the right to accept money from the enemy. Many Americans controlling the French patents on articles originating in Germany also found themselves in a quandary on this subject.

A step toward a definite conclusion was made when, in May, 1915, the French government passed a law which seemed to make a concession to French citizens similar to that made by Germany to her own subjects. Article 6 of that law said:

"Persons of French origin and under French protection in enemy countries, either directly or through intermediary, and similarly those of enemy countries in France, may, under conditions of complete reciprocity, fulfil all the formalities and perform all the obligations with a view to the preservation or the acquirement of rights of industrial property."

GERMANY FOLLOWS LEAD OF FRANCE

The prerogative of the individual interested in patents was not yet clear, nor was the procedure which might be followed indicated in this law. Later events, however, showed the interpretation which was to be placed on the action of the belligerent governments in making special legislation with regard to the payment of patent fees. It became evident that they had made a unique exception to the law prohibiting the holding of commercial relations with the enemy.

The German government notified German inventors and manufacturers that they should at once pay to the French Patent Office all fees which were due. Through the International Bureau at Berne

a sum of more than $50,000 was paid to France by Germans within a few weeks after the abovementioned French law was passed. To Frenchmen making inquiries from their government as to what their action should be with regard to patent rights in Germany, reply was given that, since an exception had been formally made in behalf of patents, those interested were expected to take action under the exception.

There was a desire to avoid the unpleasant impression which would be created among the general public if it were known that the government had authorized any form of commercial and financial relations with Germany, but French business men soon came to appreciate the situation and they promptly paid up lapsed fees on German patents. The German government accentuated its appreciation of France's action by formally extending the time limit for the payment of fees in war time.

The French Commission on Commerce and Industry played a large part from the beginning of the war in maintaining the inviolability of property rights which had been acquired in France by subjects of the countries with which France is at war. A proposal had been made to declare void all rights to industrial property of alien enemies, but the Commission succeeded in having the proposal defeated. The Commission also requested the Chamber of Deputies to declare that all international conventions regulating industrial matters be respected and that inventors of all nationalities be allowed to profit of their acquired rights in the future as in the past. This action will almost undoubtedly serve as the guiding rule for all the European belligerents.

Many representatives of American corporations have sought information and guidance from the Commission regarding their doubts and problems and with practical and beneficial results. The International Bureau in Berne has likewise been considered a desirable source of in

formation on questions arising with regard to Germany's wartime rules on patent matters.

One thing worth accentuating is that since the French and German governments have taken the extreme step of making an exception to the laws forbidding trading with the enemy, in order to safeguard the rights of their citizens and subjects in patents in enemy countries, the possibility exists that rigorous measures may later be applied by them, or by one of them, in cases where the strict prescriptions have not been complied with.

The annual fees on patents in France, it may be worth recalling here, are 100 francs each year for fifteen years, the maximum term of a patent. France reserves the right to revoke the patent if the invention is not "worked" in France within two years from the date of the signature of the patent.

The German fees are fifty marks for the second year, 100 for the third, 150 for the fourth and so on, with the annual addition of fifty marks, for the fifteen years' duration of the patent. Germany reserves the right of revocation after three years in case the patent is worked mainly or exclusively outside the German Empire.

Great Britain reserves a similar right of revocation after the lapse of four years. The British fees begin with five pounds for the fifth year and are six pounds for the sixth year, seven for the seventh, and so on, with an annual increase of one pound yearly till the fourteenth or last year of the patent.

In Italy the fees for the fifteen years of the life of the patent are changed every three years. For the first three the fees are forty lire each year, for the next three, sixty-five, and every three years there is an increase of twenty-five lire.

HARDSHIP WORKED ON AMERICANS

The obligation to "work" the patent, which is imposed by Great Britain, France and Germany, is a very decided hardship on American owners of patents, especially