Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.
Peking, China, December 1, 1905.
Sir: In further reference to my dispatch, No. 148, of November 10, referring to the present status of the negotiations for trade-mark regulations in China, and to my statement that I hoped to be able to submit to you a report, by our consular officers, on the number of Americans who had received registration for their trade-marks under the provisional regulations issued by China last year, I have now the honor to inclose copies of letters received from our consuls-general at Shanghai and Tientsin.
Offices for the registration of trade-marks under the provisional regulations of last year were only opened, I believe, at Shanghai and Tientsin. If others, of which I have not learned, were opened, it is practically certain that applicants for registration received everywhere the same treatment. It appears, therefore, that while a number of American firms in China made application under the terms of the provisional regulations for registration of their trade-marks, said applications were simply given provisional record numbers in the different offices, with the understanding that final registration would be granted later.
The question therefore arises whether the objection made by our Government to the regulations now being discussed, and communicated to this legation in the department’s No. 42, of August 11, 1905, that section 25 “may destroy the effect of registration effected by American owners of trade-marks under the trade-mark regulations heretofore published,” which objection the diplomatic representatives here, as reported to you in dispatch No. 148, declared themselves unable to agree with, may not be waived, as no American interests would seem to be imperiled by so doing.
I beg that the department will give me instructions in the matter.
I have the honor, etc.,