Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1912

File No. 893.54/296.

The American Minister to the Secretary of State .

No. 249.]

American Legation,
Peking , May 31, 1911 .

Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith copy of a letter dated May 26, 1911,¹ addressed to me by the French Minister here requesting to be informed as to the willingness of the American Government to conclude an arrangement with the French Government by an exchange of notes between our two Legations here for the reciprocal protection of literary and artistic property in China. Mr. de Margerie refers in this letter to the arrangement effected several years since by an exchange of notes between certain of the treaty powers represented at Peking, providing for the protection of their trademarks in China,¹ and encloses copy of the convention of September 14, 1909, between Japan and France, which includes copyright as well as trademark protection in China. The French Minister states moreover that his Government, believing it might be to the common interests of our respective nationals to adopt, as regards the reciprocal protection of intellectual property in China, an arrangement similar to that contained in the Tokio convention, has instructed him to inquire whether the American Government would be favorable to the conclusion of such an arrangement, effected by an exchange of notes between our two Legations.

While I have thus far received no complaint as to the infringement of American copyrights by foreigners in China, yet it is not at all unlikely that cases may arise at any time, particularly as large numbers of American textbooks are already in use and are gradually growing in favor in the new schools throughout the Empire, and the facilities for their re-publication are afforded by the numerous foreign publishing houses in the treaty ports of China. * * *

In this connection I beg to report that the attention of the Legation has recently been called to a number of infringements of American copyrights by Chinese publishing houses in China. Protection against these infringements is most urgent, and I feel constrained therefore to call the Department’s serious attention to the importance of concluding a copyright convention with China. As to the utter inadequacy of Article XI of our present treaty² to afford any real protection in China to American literary property the Department is well aware. In my opinion it is only by a new convention that any effectual protection for American copyrights in China can be obtained. Even with the American-Japanese convention of May 19, 1908,³ and the proposed arrangements with the other foreign treaty powers secured, and even if Chinese subjects were not given to infringing American copyrights, there would still be, in the absence of formal protection against Chinese infringement, the likelihood that foreigners in China would carry out their piracies under Chinese names or through Chinese agents. * * *

I have [etc.]

W. J. Calhoun.

1. Not printed.
1. See Foreign Relations 1905, p. 169.
2. See Foreign Relations 1903, p. 97.
3. See Foreign Relations 1908, p. 521.