THE CUBA K E V I E W 



CUBAN GOVERNMENT MATTERS 



TRADE MARK BUREAU 



Annoiuicemont is made Ijy tlic I'nitod 

 States Treasury Deijartniont that Dr. Mario 

 Diaz Yrizar, an attorney of Habana, who has 

 had wide experience in trade-mark matters, 

 has been appointed Director of the Interna- 

 tional Bureau for the registration of trade- 

 marks to be established at Habana. It is to 

 be expected, therefore, that the Bureau will 

 shortly be prepared to assume the funtitions 

 conferred by the Convention rcfjarding 

 trade-marks adopted at the Fourth Pan 

 American Conference in Buenos Aires in 1910. 

 This Convention provides that "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 $50 gold, which sum 

 shall cover all the expenses of both Bureaus 

 for the international registration in all the 

 signatory States." 



In the administration of this provision two 

 Bureaus for the registration of trade-marks 

 are to be established. The 21 Republics 

 forming the Pan-American Union are divided 

 into two groups, with Habanr as the center 

 for the countries of North and Central 

 America and the West Indies and Rio de 

 Janeiro as the center for the South American 

 countries. Either Bureau may be established 

 upon the ratification of the Convention by 

 two-thirds of the countries of the respective 

 groups. The necessarj' number for the 

 establishment of the Bureau at Habana were 

 secured when the Convention was ratified bj- 

 Costa Rica in August, 1916. This was fol- 

 lowed on September 16, 1916, by the proc- 

 lamation of the Convention as in effect in the 

 United States, and steps were immediately 

 taken to give it efTect. At present Mexico, 

 Salvador and Haiti are the onlj' countries 

 of the northern group that have failed to 

 ratify it. 

 Support and Operation uj the Bureau. 



The Bureau at Habana will be supported 



on a i)ro rata basis by all the American 

 Republics of the northern group that have 

 ratified the Convention. Its operation will 

 be under the direction of the Cuban Govern- 

 ment, with the consultation of the United 

 States Commissioner of Patents and the new 

 Director of the International Bureau, as 

 well as with analogous officials in the other 

 countries of the Union. Certain details 

 connected with its administration will doubt- 

 less have to be worked out before marks can 

 be accepted for registration, but in the near 

 future this valuable form of trade-mark 

 protection should be available to manufac- 

 turers and exporters whose trade-marks are 

 registered in the United States. 



The advantage of the arrangement is 

 that by the payment of a single fee of $50, 

 a trade-mark will be reigstered in all of the 

 countries of the Union without the necessity 

 of further formality. Until the second Bureau 

 is established at Rio de Janeiro, registration 

 at Habana will presumably apply only to the 

 countries of the northern group. Upon the 

 establishment of both Bureaus, however, 

 registration in either will give full protection 

 in all countries, that have ratified the Con- 

 vention. 



The International High Commission states 

 that it will now make a renewed effort to 

 secure ratifications in South America to 

 bring about an early inauguration of the 

 Bureau at Rio de Janerio, thus insuring 

 trade-mark protection throughout the hemi- 

 sphere. 



FINANCIAL EXPERT 



Sr. Mariano Dumas y Franco, a business 

 expert, has been named by President Menocal 

 as chief of the division of banks, corporations, 

 and companies in the Bureau of Commerce 

 and Industrv. 



EXPORT LICENSES 



By order of the War Trade Bureau at Wash- 

 ington, export of any of the following prod- 

 ucts to Cuba without license, regardless of 

 quantity or value, is forbidden: cheese, oat- 

 meal, barley, oats, corn, wheat flour, wheat 

 flour products, corn products, condensed milk, 

 l)owdered milk, butter and butter substitutes, 

 pork products, lard substitutes, beef products 

 and dried fruits. 



