THL 

 CUBA REVIEW 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA" 



Copyright, 1914, by the Munson Steamship Line 



Volume XII 



MARCH, 1914 



NUMMER 4 



CUBAN GOVERNMENT MATTERS 



FOREIGN TRADE MARK REGISTRY PROTECTED GOOD ROADS PROJECT 



LOTTERY SCANDALS 



Although the patent and 

 Protecting trade mark laws of Cuba 

 Foreign provide that marks should 

 Trade Marks be registered in the name of 

 the first applicant, President 

 Menocal recently, by means of a decree an- 

 nulled the trade mark registry granted to a 

 local applicant for the letters "A.- E. G." to 

 designate electrical effects and appliances, 

 as these rightly belonged to the Allgenieine 

 Elektrizitat Gesellschaft of Berlin. 



This decree puts an end to a series of 

 abuses which had been committed by un- 

 principaled persons for years who, for in- 

 stance, register the name of some prominent 

 manufacturer's trade mark and the day the 

 company decides to go into business in 

 Cuba it would find itself "infringing" the 

 rights of other holders of its own property. 

 The Cuban government has received un- 

 favorable criticism abroad because of this. 

 Under the decree the President annuls 

 the previous registry and confirms that of 

 the original owner of the trade mark who 

 appealed the case. 



Graft 



in the 

 Lotterv 



President Menocal and his 

 Cabinet on March 9th de- 

 cided to send a message to 

 the Cuban Congress asking 

 for the abolishment of the 

 Cuban National Lottery. 



It is charged that more than $1,000,000 

 of fraud was shown in the lottery by the 

 report of a commission. The allegation 

 was made that a former Secretary of the 

 Treasury received $S,000 a month in graft 

 from the lottery company. 



The Cabinet and the President ask that 

 if the lottery is not abolished the Legisla- 

 ture will lessen some of its evil effects. 



A franchise to build a net- 

 Elevated work of elevated railroads 

 Road throughout the city of Ha- 



Franchise vana was granted to Sr. Ti- 

 burcio Perez Castaiieda by 

 the city's common council on February 19th. 

 During the debate it was pointed out that 

 Havana had a perfect surface car system 

 which covered all sections of the city, and 

 that an elevated structure amidst the nar- 

 row streets of the city would be an atrocity, 

 depriving the inhabitants of light and air. 



Netv 

 Press 

 Lazv 



The press law of Novem- 

 ber 11, 1886, made applicable 

 to Cuba by royal decree of 

 Queen Regent Maria Cris- 

 tina of Spain, became a 

 dead letter when the Sagaro bill approved 

 by act of Congress was published in the 

 Official Cacette, it becoming a law of the 

 nation by constitutional right, President 

 Menocal having refused to either sanction 

 or veto same. 



The repeal of this law which was op- 

 posed by a large number of newspaper 

 editors, leaves press offenses to ordinary 

 treatment under the penal code, and unless 

 Congress hastens to approve the Ferrara 

 bill which will prohibit that the accomplices 

 and concealers be held responsible for the 

 commission of a crime, any person who 

 should consider himself libelled by an ar- 

 ticle in a newspaper may proceed against 

 the whole staff, a thing which the former 

 press law prevented. 



Bids are called for the construction of 

 the Cuban pavillion at the International 

 Exposition in 1915 at San Francisco. 



