The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-31
BAD FOR PALMETTO JAG.
The Commissioner Of Patents Denies
the Application.

Governor Tillman Sought to Patent
the Use of the Palmetto as a Trade
Mark for the State Whisky-He
claimed, too, that South Carolina
Meant to Become a General Liquor
Dealer at Home and Abroad-The
f Commissioner Sharply Alludes to
this, and Declares That the State has
no Right to Use the Device which
now Appears on It's Whisky Bot
ties and other Vessels.
Washington, D. c., Aug. 90.-Attorney
General Olney has appointed Frank S.
White. of Birmingham, Ala, assistant
district attorney for the Northern dis
trict of Alabama, and w. H. Robertson, Of
Tennessee, assistant attorney in the de-
partment of justice in defense of Indian
depredations claims.
THE DIsPENsARY TRADE MARK
The commissioner of patents rendered a
decision to-day in the matter of the APP
neal to him of the state of South Caro-
lima from the refusal of the
examiner to register a trade mark
appied for in the name Of
the state, consisting Of the
word palmetto" to be printed on its
liouor labels, together with the arms of
the state and the name of the liquor. 1t
was stated to be the intention of the
state officers of South Carolina to enter
the markets outside of the state, and out
side of the union, as vender of liquors
for profit, and the authorities had sold a
case of its liquors bearing the trade mark
in Canada 1t was claimed by the appli-
cant that the state possessed the full
rights of a trading corporation, and that it
might undertake business of this char
acter to be conducted outside, as well as
within the state limits, and that author
itv for this was found in the provisions of
its recent liquor legislation. The eXami-
ner held otherwise, and therefore refused
registration.
TRADE OUTSIDE THE STATE.
The commissioner, after reviewing the
monopolies enioined by France and Bel
gium, holds that a state of the American
union, having all the powers of an indie
pendent, sovereign state, except those sur
rendered to the federal government, has
the inherent right, as state, to engage
in trade. domestic or foreign; but the
commissioner also holds that a lawful
trade in liquors outside the state must be
established in some effectual manner be-
fore the state can become the owner of
trade mark which would be entitled to
registration in its name in the patent
office under the law of 1881.
''THE LEVEL OF A TRADING CORPORATION"
He constructs the South Carolina liquor
act as measure for the suppression of
the liquor traffic in South Carolina by
private individuals, and to substitute
therefor its complete control by the state
through local public dispensers, and
holds that only by a strained construc-
tiOn could any phases in the act he held
to look to the esta blishment Of an outside
traffic of any kind, excepting in the pur-
chase of the liquors to be dispensed /;
that there was nothing in the general or
special objects of the statute to show that
the state intended to descend to the level
of a trading corporation outside its own
limits. The commissioner closes this de-
cisiOn by saying:
THE APPLICATION DENIED.
at is considered that the state of South
Carolina, Notwithstanding the facts of its
governor and state board of control, has
no authorized trade in liquors outside
its own limits; is not the owner of any
trade mark; has not at this time the
right to the use of the trade mark sought
to be registered and, therefore, the APP
plicatiOn is denied, =