294 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 



tion, whether it was his own invention or not, was considered the first 

 and true inventor, I think I am right in saying that tlie same was the 

 hiw in the United States of America, as regards inventions of other 

 countries. The result was that many inventions created in America, 

 when they became known there, were communicated by telegram or by 

 post to Great Britain, and in Great Britain they were registered and 

 jjateiited: provisional specifications were filed, and so forth, and the 

 person who so specified it, and patented it, although he might not have 

 been the producer of the idea, and often was not, was, according to 

 English law, the " first and true inventor". 



This difficulty formed the subject of frequent discussions, and ulti- 

 mately a convention was signed in Paris on the 20th March 1883, to 

 which, in the first instance, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, France, Guatemala, 

 Italy, and Portugal, amongst others, were parties: by which it was 

 agreed in Article 4 that any person who had duly applied for a patent, 

 design, or trade mark, in one of the contracting States should for a 

 period of six months, and in some cases for a longer period, have the 

 priority to the right of application for the patent or trade-mark in any 

 of the other countries parties to the convention. The actual terms of 

 the original convention were subsequently modified but not in any 

 material respect upon this point. The United States subsequently 

 joined in the convention, and thereby, in common with the other 

 1072 contracting countries, established a rule for the protection of 

 designs, trade marks, and letters patent, which were called 

 industrial property. Prior to this convention, and apart from the 

 countries that are parties to it, no right of property in letters patent 

 was recognized as between nations at all; and the law at this moment 

 stands in this way, that though the concurrence of the most conspicu- 

 ous Powers of the world goes a long way towards a general interna- 

 tional copyright law and a general law in relation to patents, still, the 

 law which affects internationally these two important subjects of copy- 

 right and of invention, rests solelj'- upon the agreement embodied in 

 the convention, and is binding solely on the parties to it. 



Senator Morgan. — That would become international law if we wait 

 long enough and nobody objects. 



Sir Charles Eussell. — In process of time I sincerely hope it will. 



Now Mr, President, the next branch of the argument that my learned 

 friend Mr. Phelps proceeds to is the consideration of the question, 

 assuming that he has established an industry which he says is inju- 

 riously affected by something done, what by international law are the 

 rights which a Power in time of peace may exercise for the protection 

 of that right, or of that industry. 



Examination of ^ow, of coursc, Mr. President, it is obvious that if I 

 the argument as havc succccdcd iu establishing that there is no right to 

 proteaionf^* "^ protcct, it bccomcs quite unnecessary to consider what 

 are the rights of protection. I certainly should be quite 

 content to leave the argument at this stage resting upon the ground 

 that no right has been shown to exist, and therefore, where there is no 

 right to protect, it becomes immaterial to consider what may or may 

 not be done under international law, with a view to protection; but I 

 do not wish to pass by in a contemptuous way any argument my learned 

 friend has advanced; and I think it may throw some light on the gen- 

 eral consideration of this question and upon the fallacies which, I con- 

 ceive, creep into this part of the case, if I call attention to the cases 

 which my learned Iriend has cited in sujiport of this supposed right of 

 protection in time of peace, and the acts which may by international 

 law be done in defence of that right. 



