No. 1048.
Mr. Frey to Mr. Bayard.
[Translation.]
Legation of Switzerland,
Washington, January 31,
1888. (Received February 1.)
Mr. Secretary of State: The undersigned,
minister of the Swiss Confederation, has the honor, by direction of his
Government, to transmit you the inclosed note from it, and avails,
etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
The Swiss Federal
Council to Mr. Bayard.
Mr. Minister: We have the honor to inform
your excellency that when the international convention of September
9, 1886, for the protection of literary and artistic works went into
operation, we decided to place under one management the
international bureau of industrial property, now existing at Berne,
and the new international bureau, with the organization of which we
are charged by the aforesaid convention. By this measure, which
leaves the spheres of action of the two bureaus entirely distinct,
we wished to satisfy the desires of several countries belonging to
the international unions. It will easily render it possible, in view
of the great analogy existing between industrial property and
literary and artistic property, to effect a large saving in the
management and to reduce to a minimum the share which is payable by
each of the contracting states.
Having thought that under the present circumstances the appointment
of a director on the same footing as those of the international
bureaus of posts and telegraphs was not indispensable, we have just
designated Mr. Henri Morel, a national councilor and former
president of the federal assembly, to fill the office of
secretary-general of the two bureaus until they shall be definitely
organized by the appointment of a director. Mr. B. Frey-Godet, who
has hitherto been secretary of the international bureau of
industrial property, has been appointed second secretary of the two
bureaus, and it will be his duty to sign in the absence of the
secretary-general. Federal Councillor Droz is to have the
superintendence-in-chief of the management of these bureaus.
Hoping that this action will meet with the approval of your
Government as a member of the union for the protection of industrial
property, we avail, etc.
In the name of the Swiss Federal Council.
- Hertenstein,
The President of the
Confederation. - Ringier,
The Chancellor of the
Confederation.
