File No. 811.54262/149
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Spain ( Wilson)
737. Paragraph (a), section 10, Trading with Enemy Act, approved October 6, 1917, provides:
An enemy, or ally of enemy, may file and prosecute in the United States an application for letters patent, or for registration of trademark, print, label, or copyright, and may pay any fees therefor in accordance with and as required by the provisions of existing law and fees for attorneys or agents for filing and prosecuting such applications. Any such enemy, or ally of enemy, who is unable during war, or within six months thereafter, on account of conditions arising out of war, to file any such application, or to pay any official fee, or to take any action required by law within the period prescribed by law, may be granted an extension of nine months beyond the expiration of said period, provided the nation of which the said applicant is a citizen, subject, or corporation shall extend substantially similar privileges to citizens and corporations of the United States.
It would appear from two notes dated May 5 and 6 respectively, issued by German Government and published in La Propriété Industrielle, May 31, that German Government held that United States after its entrance in the war no longer granted to German subjects extensions for filing patent, utility-model and trade-mark applications, and for payment of fees which would entitle American citizens to similar privileges under German law.
Submit foregoing to Foreign Office with request that it ascertain through proper channels and inform this Government whether German Government is extending or is prepared to extend to citizens of the United States privileges similar, to those provided in above paragraph, law of October 6.