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and industrial models concede. Consequently, they shall have the right to the same protection and identical legal remedies against any attack upon their rights, provided they comply with the laws of each State.

ART. III. Any person who shall have regularly deposited an application for a patent of invention or design or industrial model in one of the contracting States shall enjoy, for the purposes of making the deposit in the other States and under the reserve of the rights of third parties, a right of priority during a period of twelve months for patents of invention, and of four months for designs or industrial models.

In consequence the deposits subsequently made in any other of the signatory States before the expiration of these periods can not be invalidated by acts performed in the interval, especially by other deposits, by the publication of the invention or its working, or by the sale of copies of the design or of the model.

ART. IV. When, within the terms fixed, a person shall have filed applications in several States for the patent of the same invention, the rights resulting from patents thus applied for shall be independent of each other.

They shall also be independent of the rights arising under patents obtained for the same invention in countries not parties to this convention.

ART. V. Questions which may arise regarding the priority of patents of invention shall be decided with regard to the date of the application for the respective patents in the countries in which they are granted.

ART. VI. The following shall be considered as inventions: A new manner of manufacturing industrial products, a new machine or mechanical or manual apparatus which serves for the manufacture of said products, the discovery of a new industrial product, the application of known methods for the purpose of securing better results, and every new, original, and ornamental design or model for an article of manufacture.

The foregoing shall be understood without prejudice to the laws of each State.

ART. VII. Any of the signatory States may refuse to recognize patents for any of the following causes:

(a) Because the inventions or discoveries may have been published in any country prior to the date of the invention by the applicant. (b) Because the inventions have been registered, published, or described in any country more than one year prior to the date of the application in the country in which the patent is sought.

(c) Because the inventions have been in public use, or have been on sale in the country in which the patent has been applied for, one year prior to the date of said application.

(d) Because the inventions or discoveries are in some manner contrary to morals or laws.

ART. VIII. The ownership of a patent of invention comprises the right to enjoy the benefits thereof, and the right to assign or transfer it in accordance with the laws of the country.

ART. IX. Persons who incur civil or criminal liabilities, because of injuries or damage to the rights of inventors, shall be prosecuted and punished in accordance with the laws of the countries wherein the offense has been committed or the damage occasioned.

ART. X. Copies of patents certified in the country of origin, according to the national law thereof, shall be given full faith and credit as evidence of the right of priority, except as stated in Article VII.

ART. XI. The treaties relating to patents of invention, designs, or industrial models, previously entered into between the countries subscribing to the present convention, shall be superseded by the same from the time of its ratification in so far as the relations between the signatory States are concerned.

ART. XII. The adhesion of the American nations to the present convention shall be communicated to the Government of the Argentine Republic in order that it may communicate them to the other States. These communications shall have the effect of an exchange of ratifications.

ART. XIII. A signatory nation that sees fit to retire from the present convention, shall notify the Government of the Argentine Republic, and one year after the receipt of the communication the force of this convention shall cease, in so far as the nation which shall have withdrawn its adherence is concerned.

In witness whereof, the plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty and affixed thereto the seal of the Fourth International American Conference.

Made and signed in the city of Buenos Ayres on the 20th day of August, in the year 1910, in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French, and deposited in the ministry of foreign affairs of the Argentine Republic, in order that certified copies be made for transmission to each of the signatory nations through the appropriate diplomatic channels.

(The signatures follow.)

CONVENTION.

Protection of Trade-Marks.

Their Excellencies the President of the United States of America, the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,

Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, Uruguay, and Venezuela;

Being desirous that their respective countries may be represented at the Fourth International American Conference, have sent thereto the following delegates, duly authorized to approve the recommendations, resolutions, conventions, and treaties which they might deem advantageous to the interest of America.

(Here follow the names of the plenipotentiaries.)

Who, after having presented their credentials and the same having been found in due and proper form, have agreed upon the following Convention for the Protection of Trade-Marks.

ARTICLE I. The signatory nations enter into this convention for the protection of trade-marks and commercial names.

ART. II. Any mark duly registered in one of the signatory States shall be considered as registered also in the other States of the Union, without prejudice to the rights of third persons and to the provisions of the laws of each State governing the same.

In order to enjoy the benefit of the foregoing, the manufacturer or merchant interested in the registry of the mark must pay, in addition to the fees or charges fixed by the laws of the State in which application for registration is first made, the sum of fifty dollars gold, which sum shall cover all the expenses of both bureaus for the international registration in all the signatory States.

ART. III. The deposit of a trade-mark in one of the signatory States produces in favor of the depositor a right of priority for the period of six months, so as to enable the depositor to make the deposit in the other States.

Therefore the deposit made subsequently and prior to the expiration of this period can not be annulled by acts performed in the interval, especially by another deposit, by publication, or by the use of the mark.

ART. IV. The following shall be considered as trade-mark: Any sign, emblem, or special name that merchants or manufacturers may adopt or apply to their goods or products in order to distinguish them from those of other manufacturers or merchants who manufacture or deal in articles of the same kind.

ART. V. The following can not be adopted or used as trade-mark: National, provincial, or municipal flags or coats of arms; immoral or scandalous figures; distinctive marks which may have been obtained by others or which may give rise to confusion with other marks; the general classification of articles; pictures or names of persons without their permission; and any design which may have been adopted as an emblem by any fraternal or humanitarian association.

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The foregoing provision shall be construed without prejudice to the particular provisions of the laws of each State.

ART. VI. All questions which may arise regarding the priority of the deposit or the adoption of a trade-mark shall be decided with due regard to the date of the deposit in the State in which the first application was made therefor.

ART. VII. The ownership of a trade-mark includes the right to enjoy the benefits thereof and the right of assignment or transfer in whole or in part of its ownership or its use in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the respective States.

ART. VIII. The falsification, imitation, or unauthorized use of a trade-mark, as also the false representation as to the origin of a product, shall be prosecuted by the interested party in accordance with the laws of the State wherein the offense is committed.

For the effects of this article, interested parties shall be understood to be any producer, manufacturer, or merchant engaged in the production, manufacture, or traffic of said product, or in the case of false representation of origin, one doing business in the locality falsely indicated as that of origin, or in the territory where said locality is situated.

ART. IX. Any person in any of the signatory States shall have the right to petition and obtain in any of the States, through its competent judicial authority, the annulment of the registration of a trade-mark, when he shall have made application for the registration of that mark, or of any other mark, calculated to be confused, in such State, with the mark in whose annulment he is interested, upon proving:

(a) That the mark the registration whereof he solicits has been employed or used within the country prior to the employment or use of the mark registered by the person registering it or by the persons from whom he has derived title;

(b) That the registrant had knowledge of the ownership, employment, or use in any of the signatory States of the mark of the applicant the annulment whereof is sought prior to the use of the registered mark by the registrant or by those from whom he has derived title;

(c) That the registrant had no right to the ownership, employment, or use of the registered mark on the date of its deposit;

(d) That the registered mark had not been used or employed by the registrant or by his assigns within the term fixed by the laws of the State in which the registration shall have been made.

ART. X. Commercial names shall be protected in all the States of the Union, without deposit or registration, whether the same form part of a trade-mark or not.

ART. XI. For the purposes indicated in the present convention a Union of American Nations is hereby constituted, which shall act through two international bureaus established one in the city of Habana, Cuba, and the other in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, acting in complete accord with each other.

ART. XII. The international bureaus shall have the following duties:

1. To keep a register of the certificates of ownership of trade-mark issued by any of the signatory States.

2. To collect such reports and data as relate to the protection of intellectual and industrial property and to publish and circulate them among the nations of the union, as well as to furnish them whatever special information they may need upon this subject.

3. To encourage the study and publicity of the questions relating to the protection of intellectual and industrial property; to publish for this purpose one or more official reviews, containing the full texts or digest of all documents forwarded to the bureaus by the authorities of the signatory States.

The Governments of said States shall send to the International American Bureaus their official publications which contain the announcements of the registrations of trade-marks, and commercial names, and the grants of patents and privileges as well as the judgments rendered by the respective courts concerning the invalidity of trade-marks and patents.

4. To communicate to the Governments of the Union any difficulties or obstacles that may oppose or delay the effective application of this convention.

5. To aid the Governments of the signatory States in the preparations of international conferences for the study of legislation concerning industrial property, and to secure such alterations as it may be proper to propose in the regulations of the Union, or in treaties in force to protect industrial property. In case such conferences take place, the directors of the bureaus shall have the right to attend the meetings and there to express their opinions, but not to vote.

6. To present to the Governments of Cuba and of the United States of Brazil, respectively, yearly reports of their labors, which shall be communicated at the same time to all the Governments of the other States of the Union.

7. To initiate and establish relations with similar bureaus and with the scientific and industrial associations and institutions for the exchange of publications, information, and data conducive to the progress of the protection of industrial property.

8. To investigate cases where trade-marks, designs, and industrial models have failed to obtain the recognition of registration provided

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