The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-06-29
PROTECTION OF
|. MANU- ACTURERS
IN EXPORT TRADE
Mission From Cuba Coming
To Confer With Business
Men Of United States.

Washington, June 29.-The coming
visit of DR.. Mario Diaz Irizar, of Gu
ba, to the United States for confer
erice with business men and other Of
ficials of the Pan-American Trade
mark Bureau. of which Dr.. Irizar- is
director in North America, is expect
ed to result in greatly furthering the
protection of manufacturers who are
endeavoring to increase their export
trade in Latin-American countries.
The matter of trade-marked articles
in Latin-American has caused great
trouble to business men and has long
offered a wide field for INSCRIPTIONS
adventures and notably for Germans,
some of whom have secured large
amounts of money from American
manufacturers by methods closely re-
semb1ing blackmail. Patents and
copyrights come under the same head
and efforts are being made by the
Pan-American Trademark Bureau to
correct the evils that have grown up
in pirating the good names of reliable
manufactured articles.
1
to manufacture, according to William
G, Wells, chief statistician of the Pan
American Union.
VII "They simply register the trade
mark, he said today, land thereafter
control the selling of the article in
the country in which they have regis
tered it. That is all that is neces-
sary under the laws of all the Latin
American countries.
1.-THE object of the Pan-American
Trademark Bureau is to prevent this
fraudulent registration. All the coun-
tries of both Americas are interested
in the bureau which has branches in
North and South America. The mo-
dus operandi of the man who regis
tiers trademarks is simple. All he has
to do is to find some article that is be-
| ing advertised extensively in the Unit
ed States and of which there is a
probability that it will be introduced
in his country.
1.-THE registration fee is usually
small and when the trickster has
made his registration he sits back and
waits for the business to come to him.
When the manufacturer comes to in
troduce his article in that country he
finds that he has to deal with the man
who registered it. Sometimes he has
to pay a big royalty or a large lump
sum to be permitted to operate there.
eft is to correct this state of affairs
that the bureau was organized"
| It was pointed out by an official in
Washington that United States manu-
facturers can easily circumvent the
trademark pirates by changing the
trademark when he is ready to in
troduce the article in any country
where it has been fraudulently reg
istered.
But these manufacturers are loath
to do this" said the official. '"They
think that the trademark is the valu-
able thing about the article. They
are also sentimental about it. AS a
matter of fact the trademark is fire.
quent1y a drawback instead of an ad-
vantage. English words used in
trademarks are often unpronounce-
able in Spanish and the consumer has
nicknames. If the manufacturer
would change his trademark so that
the Latin-American could pronounce
it he would circumvent the pirates
and popularize his article. And the
intrinsic value of the goods would es-
tablish the market for the manufac-
turers."