The bill also provides for exemptions and the usual penalties for failure to comply with the laws. PHILIPPINES Mining, Claimholders, Constitutional Law. A decision of the Philippine Supreme Court has settled a question that has been of particular interest in Philippine mining circles ever since the adoption of the Constitution, with the provision that "natural resources, with the exception of public agricultural lands, shall not be alienated." It was agreed by the industry and the Government that mineral lands could not be alienated from the public domain after November 15, 1935, when the Constitution became effective, and that claims already patented before that date were not affected by the constitutional provision since they were not part of the public domain. According to the Office of the American Trade Commissioner, Manila, the condition of claims filed before November 15, 1935, but not patented remained in doubt, however. To settle the question, four suits were instituted to compel the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce and the Director of Mines to approve applications for patent. These suits covered claims in various stages, including one by the Balatoc Mining Company, where everything had been accomplished except the actual issue of the patent; one by the Gold Creek Mining Corporation, in which much of the assessment work had been done but no patent applied for prior to November 15, 1935; and one by the Salacot Mining Company, where the claim had been filed but only preliminary assessment .work done. The decision handed down in the Gold Creek case is sufficiently broad to cover all of them, since the Supreme Court found that "the location of the mining claim under consideration was perfected prior to November 15, 1935, and, according to the laws existing at the time, a valid location of a mining claim segregated the area from the public domain." The constitutional provision that "natural resources shall not be alienated" was intended to refer to "mineral lands of the public domain, but not mineral lands which at the time the provision took effect no longer formed a part of the public domain." The contention of the applicant that "the right acquired under a valid location of the mining claim is a property right of the highest character" was upheld. Since the Government had previously agreed that it would not appeal the case if the decision should be adverse, this decision means that any claim properly filed prior to November 15, 1935, is entitled to a patent. The actual issuance of a patent does not appear to be of any considerable importance, the suits being brought as applications for patent merely because that was the most convenient way of bringing them. Actually, the decision confirms the ownership of claims filed before November 15, 1935, where assessment work has been kept up. The Government is entitled to collect taxes on production from such claims but not royalties. Tax rates are at the present time the same as royalty rates and will probably continue so, though there is at least a technical distinction that tax rates may not be confiscatory, whereas there is nothing to prevent royalties becoming confiscatory. INSURANCE AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY NOTES PHARMACEUTICAL TRADE MARK REGISTRATIONS IN COLOMBIA The regulations of this country's Pharmaceutical Specialties Commission (Comision de Especialidades Farmaceuticas) require that an application to import and sell a foreign pharmaceutical product must be accompanied by a certificate from the appropriate office of the Ministry of Industries stating that the trade mark of the product, for which a pharmaceutical license is desired, is registered in the name of the petitioner, or that it has not been registered. The usual procedure in Colombia in connection with the registering and licensing of a pharmaceutical product is to apply for the trade mark, obtain a certificate from the Ministry of Industries which states, in the case of new marks, that the trade mark has not been registered but that an application for registration has been filed, and submit the certificate together with the other required documents to the Pharmaceutical Specialties Commission for consideration. The trade mark registration may be granted before or after the approval or refusal of the pharmaceutical license. The license to import, or manufacture, and sell a pharmaceutical product in no way establishes or constitutes ownership of the trade mark or name appearing in the text of the license. Conversely the ownership of a mark does not imply or require that the Pharmaceutical Specialties Commission must grant a license for the product it identifies. There have been several cases recently where, after the trade mark was registered and the application was made for the pharmaceutical license, the Commission refused to license the product. CONVENTION OF THE UNION FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY The International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed at London on June 2, 1934, revising the Convention of the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed at Paris on March 20, 1883, as revised at Brussels on December 14, 1900, at Washington on June 2, 1911, and at The Hague on November 6, 1925, was proclaimed by the President on October 28, 1938. The convention, as revised, went into effect on August 1, 1938, between and among the Governments of the United States of America, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Norway, under a provision in Article 18 of the convention that, as to countries which deposited their instruments of ratification at London, not later than July 1, 1938, it should come into force one month after such date. The convention is as yet effective only among the above-mentioned six countries which deposited instruments of ratification thereof at London before July 1, 1938. As regards countries to which the London convention does not apply but to which the convention of the Union of Paris, as revised at The Hague in 1925, does apply, the latter remains in force, and likewise, as regards countries to which neither the London convention nor the convention of the Union of Paris, as revised at The Hague, applies, the convention of the Union of Paris as revised in Washington in 1911 remains in force. The text of the convention was published in C. L. 485 and may be obtained from the Division of Commercial Laws at 10 cents per copy. Argentina. PATENTS AND TRADE MARKS From the first of January through the month of September 1938, the Patent and Trade Mark Office advises that a total of 19,049 applications for patents have been received, of which 16,069 have been acted upon. From the data made public, no indication is given as to how many of these have actually been granted. Eighty-nine transfers of patents registered have been granted. The total income of this office has amounted to 254,107 Argentine pesos. During the same period 6,814 requests for trade marks were received of which 1,356 were opposed. Practically half of the oppositions are still under consideration. At the same time, a total of 7,547 appli cations were acted upon. As there was a heavy carry-over from the previous year, the number acted upon was greater than the number of new applications received. In addition, 1,448 transfers of trade mark rights were effected. According to the office of the American Commercial Attache, Buenos Aires, the income of the trade mark section was 370,400 Argentine pesos. Denmark. A total of 3,124 patent applications (2,960 in 1936) were filed in Denmark in 1937, according to the office of the American Commercial Attache, Copenhagen. During the same year 1,602 patents (1,436 in 1936) were granted divided by country of domicile of the patentee as follows: At the close of 1937 there were 7,564 patents in force in Denmark as compared with 7,200 at the end of 1936. Patent application fees totaled Kr. 145,900 in 1937, as against Kr. 135,950 in 1936; patent issuance fees amounted to Kr. 86,285 and Kr. 62,970 respectively, while taxes on outstanding patents returned Kr. 432,325 and Kr. 383,010 in the respective years. France. According to the office of the American Consul, Paris, a decree dated July 13, 1938, increases the existing tariff of fees for copies of patent records and trade marks to the following figures: United Kingdom - Sarawak. The Copyright Order, 1937, dated November 23, 1927, extends to Sarawak the provisions of the British Copyright Act of 1911 insofar as international copyright provisions are concerned. The Order provides that the act shall apply to works first published in Sarawak in the same manner as if they were first published within the British Dominions to which the act extends. A copy of the Order is on file in the Division of Commercial Laws and may be obtained for loan upon request. United Kingdom Tanganyika Territory. The Patents and Trade Marks Order, 1937, dated November 23, 1937, extends to Tanganyika Territory Sections 48 and 91 insofar as they relate to trade marks of the British Patents and Designs Acts, 1907 to 1932, according to the office of the American Commercial Attache, London. Section 48 of the Patents and Designs Acts provides that the rights of a patentee shall not be deemed to be infringed, in territories to which the section applies, by the use of a patented invention on board a foreign vessel or in the construction or operation of a foreign air craft or land vehicle which comes into such territory or territories temporarily or accidentally. Section 91 provides for mutual protection of inventions, designs, and trade marks. copy of the Order may be obtained by addressing requests Division of Commercial Laws. A loan to the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE • DANIEL C. ROPER, Secretary BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE • ALEXANDER V. DYE, Director Comparative Law Series INDEX TO COMPARATIVE LAW SERIES FOR THE YEAR 1938 VOLUME I (Titles Printed In Capital Letters Denote Leading Articles.) GENERAL TRENDS OF RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE. UNIFORMITY IN COMMERCIAL DOCUMENTARY CREDIT PRACTICE. LAWS AFFECTING COMMERCE, 75TH CONGRESS, 3RD SESSION January May Report of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents. July August September October February March April June New Life Insurance for February 1938. Patent and Trade Mark Statistics. March, April, May, July, August, INTERNATIONAL UNITED STATES TAX CREDIT DENIED BRITISH TAX United States-Sweden, Taxation. . . United States-Liberia, Treaty (Commerce and Navigation) |