Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1879 — The Trade-Mark Law Invalid. [ARTICLE]

The Trade-Mark Law Invalid.

By deciding on Monday that the statute providing for the registry of trade-marks and prescribing a criminal penalty for their fradulent use is unconstitutional in whole and in part, the Supreme Court at Washington upset an extensive system of mercantile' rights at home and abroad. The subject came before the Court on a division of opinion in the New York Circuit Court and an appeal from a decision in Ohio. A District Court in the West some months ago decided that the act for the registry of trade-marks was unconstitutional, but no appeal was taken, and the PatentOffice at Washington went on with its work. The decision by the Supreme Court apparently cuts up the present system by the roots. The existing law provides for the registry of trade-marks at Washington on the payment of a fee of twenty-five dollars, and gives the owner of a trade-mark more efficient protection than is enjoyed even by a patentee. A liberal provision of the law allowed the privilege of registry to the trade-mark owned by the citizten of any country which permitted registry to American trademarks. Prior to the passage of the law the recognition of foreign trade-marks had been secured by treaties with some European countries, and conventions covering the subject have been negotiated with nearly all European countries since 1870, when the present trademark act was adopted. So far as foreign and domestic rights in trade-marks are secured by Federal registry they will be impaired by this decision, but it must not be overlooked that the right of property in trade-marks is recognized by the common law. .Every trader and manufacturer has a right, which the courts will protect, in the distinctive mark by which he designates his goods. The collapse of the special registry act for unconstitutieffality simply makes the protection of trade-marks more difficult, but it does not deprive them of value, and the law still stands ready to guard customers against the fraudulent use of trade-marks. There will be a’ general interest in learning the grounds of this decision. The Federal statute was passed in the attempt apparently to assimilate the rights of invention and trade-mark, two widely different things, and was currently based on the power given Congress to provide for patent and copynght, ana to regulate commerce. ? *. Many valuable trade-marks are owned by proprietors of medicines. For instance, Perry Davis & Son own the right to name Pain-Killer by originality and long use, and the common law of England and America would protect them, as it would others.— Eastern Exchange. 1

—To Cure Hams.—This recipe is fifty years old, and I think it is the best. To each twenty pounds of green meat make a mixture of one-fourth of a pound of brown sugar and a dessertspoonful of ground saltpeter; rub this well by hand into the meat; then with coarse salt cover the bottom of a barrel, say. to half an inch; put in hams and cover with half an inch of salt, and so on until the barrel is full; hams should remain in a cool place four weeks; when salted, wipe ana dry them, and get some whole black pepper, which you must grind yourself, and pepper thoroughly, especially about the nock and bone; let the bams lie for two days: then smpke for eight weeks.— Cor. N. K 7¥mes. . • ■ - —lt is always the smoke from the other man’s cigar that is offensive to the young lady.