Their Excellencies the Presidents of the United States of America, the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Chili, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, Uruguay, and Venezuela;

Being desirous that their respective countries may be represented at the Fourth International American Conference, have sent thereto the following delegates duly authorized to approve the recommendation, resolutions, conventions, and treaties, which they might deem advantageous to the interests of America: United States of America: Henry White, Enoch H. Crowder, Lewis Nixon, John Bassett Moore, Bernard Moses, Lamar C. Quintero, Paul Samuel Reinsch, David Kinley.

Argentine Republic: Antonio Bermejo, Eduardo L. Bidau, Manuel A. Montes de Oca, Epifanio Portela, Carlos Rodriguez Larreta, Carlos Salas, José A. Terry, Estanislao S. Zeballos.

United States of Brazil: Joaquin Murtinho, Domicio da Gama, José L. Almeida Nogueira, Olavo Bilac, Gastao da Cunha, Herculano de Freitas.

Republic of Chili: Miguel Cruchaga Tocornal, Emilio Belo Codecido, Anibal Cruz Díaz, Beltrán Mathieu.

Republic of Colombia: Roberto Ancízar.

Republic of Costa Rica: Alfredo Volio.

Republic of Cuba: Carlos García Vélez, Rafael Montoro y Valdés, Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui, Antonio Gonzalo Pérez, José M. Carbonell.

Dominican Republic: Américo Lugo.

Republic of Ecuador: Alejandro Cárdenas.

Republic of Guatemala: Luis Toledo Herrarte, Manuel Arroyo, Mario Estrada. Republic of Haiti: Constantin Fouchard.

Republic of Honduras: Luis Lazo Arriaga.

Mexican United States: Victoriano Salado Alvarez, Luis Pérez Verdía, Antonio Ramos Pedrueza, Roberto A. Esteva Ruiz.

Republic of Nicaragua: Manuel Pérez Alonso.

Republic of Panama: Belisario Porras.

Republic of Paraguay: Teodosio González, José P. Montero.

Republic of Peru: Eugenio Larrabure y Unánue, Carlos Alvarez Calderón, José Antonio de Lavalle y Pardo.

Republic of Salvador: Federico Mejía, Francisco Martínez Suárez.

Republic of Uruguay: Gonzalo Ramírez, Carlos M. de Pena, Antonio M. Rodríguez, Juan José Amézaga.

United States of Venezuela: Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, César Zumeta.

Who, after having presented their credentials and the same having been found in due and proper form, have agreed upon the following convention on literary and artistic copyright.

First. The signatory States acknowledge and protect the rights of literary and artistic property in conformity with the stipulations of the present convention. Second. In the expression "literary and artistic works" are included books, writings, pamphlets of all kinds, whatever may be the subject of which they treat, and whatever the number of their pages; dramatic or dramatico-musical works; choreographic and musical compositions, with or without words; drawings, paintings, sculpture, engravings; photographic works, astronomical or geographical globes; plans, sketches or plaster works relating to geography, geology or topography, architecture or any other science; and, finally, all productions that can be published by any means of impression or reproduction.

Third. The acknowledgment of a copyright obtained in one State, in conformity with its laws, shall produce its effects of full right, in all the other States, without the necessity of complying with any other formality, provided always there shall appear in the work a statement that indicates the reservation of the property right.

Fourth. The copyright of a literary or artistic work, includes for its author or assigns the exclusive power of disposing of the same, of publishing, assigning, translating, or authorizing its translation and reproducing it in any form whether wholly or in part.

Fifth. The author of a protected work, except in case of proof to the contrary, shall be considered the person whose name or well known nom de plume is indicated therein; consequently suit brought by such author or his representative against counterfeiters or violators, shall be admitted by the courts of the signatory States.

Sixth. The authors or their assigns, citizens or domiciled foreigners, shall enjoy in the signatory countries the rights that the respective laws accord, without those rights being allowed to exceed the term of protection granted in the country of origin.

For works comprising several volumes that are not published simultaneously, as well as for bulletins, or parts, or periodical publications, the term of the copyright will commence to run, with respect to each volume, bulletin, part, or periodical publication, from the respective date of its publication.

Seventh. The country of origin of a work will be deemed that of its first publication in America, and if it shall have appeared simultaneously in several of the signatory countries, that which fixes the shortest period of protection.

Eighth. A work which was not originally copyrighted shall not be entitled to copyright in subsequent editions.

Ninth. Authorized translations shall be protected in the same manner as original works.

Translators of works concerning which no right of guaranteed property exists, or the guaranteed copyright of which may have been extinguished, may obtain for their translations the rights of property set forth in article 3, but they shall not prevent the publication of other translations of the same work.

Tenth. Addresses or discourses delivered or read before deliberative assemblies, courts of justice, or at public meeting, may be printed in the daily press without the necessity of any authorization, with due regard, however, to the provisions of the domestic legislation of each nation.

Eleventh. Literary, scientific, or artistic writings, whatever may be their subjects, published in newspapers or magazines, in any one of the countries of the union, shall not be reproduced in the other countries without the consent of the authors. With the exception of the works mentioned, any article in a newspaper may be reprinted by others, if it has not been expressly prohibited, but in every case the source from which it is taken must be cited.

News and miscellaneous items published merely for general information do not enjoy protection under this convention.

Twelfth. The reproduction of extracts from literary or artistic publications for the purpose of instruction or chrestomathy, does not confer any right of property, and may therefore be freely made in all the signatory countries.

Thirteenth. The indirect appropriation of unauthorized parts of a literary or artistic work, having no original character, shall be deemed an illicit reproduction, in so far as affects civil liability.

The reproduction in any form of an entire work or of the greater part thereof, accompanied by notes or commentaries under the pretext of literary criticism or amplification, or supplement to the original work, shall also be considered illicit.

Fourteenth. Every publication infringing a copyright may be confiscated in the signatory countries in which the original work had the right to be legally protected, without prejudice to the indemnities or penalties which the counterfeiters may have incurred according to the laws of the country in which the fraud may have been committed.

Fifteenth. Each of the Governments of the signatory countries shall retain the right to permit, inspect, or prohibit the circulation, representation, or exhibition of works or productions concerning which the proper authority may have to exercise that right.

Sixteenth. The present convention shall become operative between the signatory States which ratify it three months after they shall have communicated their ratification to the Argentine Government, and it shall remain in force among them until a year after the date when it may be denounced. This denunciation shall be addressed to the Argentine Government and shall be without force except with respect to the country making it.

In witness whereof the plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty and affixed thereto the seal of the Fourth International American Conference.

Made and signed in the city of Buenos Ayres on the 11th day of August in the year 1910, in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French, and deposited in the ministry of foreign affairs of the Argentine Republic in order that certified copies be made for transmission to each one of the signatory nations through the appropriate diplomatic channels.

For the United States of America:

HENRY WHITE.
ENOCH H. CROWDER.

LEWIS NIXON.

JOHN BASSETT MOORE.

BERNARD MOSES.

LAMAR C. QUINTERO.

PAUL S. REINSCH.

DAVID KINLEY.

Russia.

PATENTS.- Proposed Amendment of Law.

The patent law now in force in Russia is that of May 20-June 1, 1896. This law repealed certain then existing provisions of general laws affecting patents but provided by Article VI that, Article 176 (codified Laws, Vol. VI, part 2, issue of 1893) should remain temporarily in force. This article is as follows:

Patents of invention and improvements relating to munitions of war and to the defense of the State which can only be used by the Government, such as pieces of artillery, projectiles, fuses and other artillery accessories, armor-plates, torpedoes, revolving turrets, etc., cannot be granted. For inventions and improvements relating to articles used in the army, but which can also be employed by private persons, such as small arms, metallic cartridges, bullets and other accessories to such weapons, patents may be granted on the condition that they shall have no force against the Ministries of War and the Navy, and shall not preclude such Ministries from using the above-mentioned inventions and improvements, or from carrying out the necessary experiments.

With the purpose of encouraging inventors to further develop improvements in the military technical art a more liberal measure has been prepared for substitution for Article 176.

It is expected that the measure which has been formulated will be considered in the Douma in the course of the present year.

The following are the provisions of the proposed measure:

1. Compulsory expropriation of patents for inventions and improvements for use by the government or for general use is admitted owing to circumstances of state or social necessity-but not otherwise than for a remuneration according to a fair valuation.

2. Compulsory expropriation of patents (art. 1) may be full or partial, i. e., referring only to a part of the rights in connection with a patent.

3. Compulsory expropriation of patents is allowed in each separate case by an edict of his Majesty. A draft of this edict is presented for his Majesty's opinion by the proper Minister or Director in Chief of a separate section through the Second Department of the State Council.

4. Allowance for the expropriation of patents may be requested conditionally before it is granted, but only on receipt of a certificate of protection by the inventor or his successor (art. 1987 of the Statute of Industry of 1906).

5. In extraordinary cases, urged by the requirements of the defense of the state and public safety, compulsory license of a patent may be allowed temporarily by decision of the Council of Ministers, on condition, however, that in the course of two months after such a decision the proper Minister or Director in Chief of a separate section should hand in a request in regard to the compulsory expropriation of a patent (art. 3). In the case of this request not being granted, the compulsory license of the patent is immediately stopped and its owner is notified of this fact.

6. The remuneration for the compulsory expropriation of a patent is determined either by voluntary agreement or in the manner established in the hereinafter following articles.

7. If in the course of three months from the day of presentation by the proper department, in virtue of his Majesty's edict (art. 3) or decision of the Council of Ministers (art. 5), of a demand in regard to the compulsory expropriation of a patent, a voluntary agreement concerning a remuneration for the patent which it is intended to expropriate will not come to conclusion, then, for determining the amount of this remuneration, a special committee is formed under the presidency of the Minister of Trade and Industry, the staff of which includes one member each from the Ministry of Finance and Trade and Industry, the States Control, and the department which has raised the question concerning the compulsory expropriation-if this department has no permanent representative in the valuation committee. Members of the committee are appointed by the proper Ministers and Directors in Chief of the separate sections. If the question in regard to the compulsory expropriation has been raised by the Minister of Trade and Industry,