No. 108.
M. Outrey to Mr. Evarts.
Washington, March 21, 1877. (Received March 21, 1877.)
Sir: The obscure terms of the English version of the second article [Page 173] of the convention concerning trade-marks, which was concluded between France and the United States in 1809, have frequently been a source of anxiety to the owners of such marks in France. The following is the French text: “Les marques de fabrique dont les propriétaires résidant dans l’un des deux états voudront assurer la garantie de leurs droits dans l’autre devront respectivement être déposées en double exemplaire, à Paris, au greffe du Tribunal de Commerce de la Seine; à Washington, au Bureau des Patents.”
This article reads in English as follows: “If the owners of trademarks residing in either of the two countries wish to secure their rights in the other country, they must deposit duplicate copies of these marks in the Patent Office at Washington, and in the clerk’s office of the Tribunal of Commerce of the Seine, at Paris.”
This wording, in which the word “respectivement” of the French text has been omitted, seems to imply that trade-marks must be deposited, simultaneously, both at Washington and at Paris; whereas, according to the real terms of the convention, the deposit is obligatory at Washington only for French citizens who wish to secure the ownership of a mark in the United States, as it is obligatory only at Paris for American citizens who desire to take the same measures in France.
The omission to which I have just had the honor to call your attention, Mr. Secretary of State, cannot affect the evident design of both governments, and I shall therefore be grateful to you if you will have the kindness to adopt some measure calculated to prevent an erroneous interpretation by the American courts of article 2 of the convention of April 16, 1869.
In case you should think proper to do so by means of an interpretative declaration, an article on this subject, worded in unequivocal terms, might, as my government suggests, be added to the aforesaid convention.
The additional article of 1868 to the treaty of 1858, concluded between the United States and Belgium, which is identical in its stipulations with our convention of 1869, but the wording of which is more precise as regards the depositing of marks, sets off, by comparison, the defect in the English text of article 2, which I have had the honor to quote above.
Be pleased to accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurance of my very high consideration.
I am, &c.,