Office of the Historian

793.003/758

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in China (Johnson)

Washington, July 17, 1931.
No. 550

Sir: Referring to the penultimate paragraph of the Department’s instruction No. 536 of July 6, 1931, in regard to the extraterritoriality negotiations between the United States and China, the Department is sending you herewith a draft revised in the light of suggestions made by the Department’s Legal Adviser,87 together with a copy of a memorandum in regard thereto.88

Excepting a few changes in punctuation and phraseology and those changes referred to in the enclosed memorandum, the enclosed draft is the same as that sent to you with the Department’s instruction under reference. This new draft will be referred to in the future as the Department’s draft of July 14, 1931.

Referring to the Minister’s undated telegram from Shanghai received on June 23, 1931,89 in regard to patents and copyrights, there is enclosed a draft of an additional paragraph prepared as a suggestion [Page 909] by the Department for insertion in the “Joint Declaration” attached to the Treaty if you are able to obtain the assent of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

As stated in the last paragraph of the Department’s No. 536 of July 6, 1931, instructions in regard to the enclosed draft and the future course of the negotiations will be telegraphed to you.

Very truly yours,

W. R. Castle, Jr.
[Enclosure]

Draft of a Provision in Regard to Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents To Be Added as the Third Matter Dealt With in the Joint Declaration Attached to the Proposed New Treaty in Regard to Extraterritoriality

“3. (Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents:) Pending revision of the Sino-American Treaty of October 8, 1903,90 the United States of America and the Republic of China agree that each shall extend to the nationals of the other, on a basis of complete reciprocity, national treatment in regard to trademarks, copyrights and patents which have been duly registered with the appropriate bureaus of the two Governments, provided that such treatment shall not be less favorable than that accorded to nationals of the foreign country most favored in this respect.”

  1. Supra.↩
  2. Memorandum by Mr. Joseph E. Jacobs of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, dated July 8, p. 888.↩
  3. Telegram dated June 21 is evidently intended, p. 881.↩
  4. Foreign Relations, 1903, p. 91.↩