§ 81. Captain BOWYERasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will consider the possibility of an alteration being made in the International Convention relating to industrial property; whether he is aware that the absolute reciprocity of treatment as between the contracting parties in their respective countries does not work out in practice as it was designed that it should by the convention; whether he is aware that the Spaniard in Great Britain can put the law in motion at once in any question affecting infringement or falsification and obtain prompt satisfaction if he is in the right, whereas British subjects in Spain can only obtain redress at enormous expense after interminable delay; and whether he will state what steps can be taken to set the whole matter on a fair basis?
§ Sir A. GEDDESThe international Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property does not provide that absolute reciprocity should be given by 1918 the contracting countries, as regards the manner in which such property is protected in the various countries; but each country, which is a party to the Convention, undertakes to protect industrial property and give the same protection to the nationals of the other contracting countries as is afforded to its own nationals. The Board of Trade are aware that the privileges accorded in some countries are not as great as in others, and the question is one which will no doubt be raised at the next periodical International Conference for the revision of the Industrial Property Convention.