ARTICLE 15

{Sidenote: Convention to take effect three months after ratification}

The present Convention shall take effect between the signatory States that ratify it, three months from the day they communicate their ratification to the Mexican Government, and shall remain in force among all of them until one year from the date it is denounced by any of said States. The notification of such denouncement shall be addressed to the Mexican Government and shall only have effect in so far as regards the country which has given it.

ARTICLE 16

{Sidenote: Adherence of nations not represented at 2d Int. Am.

Conference}

The Governments of the signatory states, when approving the present Convention, shall declare whether they accept the adherence to the same by the nations which have had no representation in the Second International American Conference.

In testimony whereof the Plenipotentiaries and Delegates sign the present Convention and set thereto the seal of the Second International American Conference.

{Sidenote: Signed at City of Mexico, Jan. 27, 1902}

Made in the City of Mexico, on the twenty-seventh day of January, nineteen hundred and two, in three copies written in Spanish, English, and French, respectively, which shall be deposited at the Department of Foreign Relations of the Government of the Mexican United States, so that certified copies thereof may be made, in order to send them through the diplomatic channel to the signatory States.

13. RIO DE JANEIRO CONVENTION, 1906

CONVENTION, SIGNED AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AUGUST 23, 1906, TO PROTECT PATENTS OF INVENTION, DRAWINGS AND INDUSTRIAL MODELS, TRADE-MARKS, AND LITERARY AND ARTISTIC PROPERTY

ARTICLE 1

{Sidenote: Patents, trade-marks, copyrights}

The subscribing nations adopt in regard to patents of invention, drawings and industrial models, trade-marks, and literary and artistic property the treaties subscribed at the Second International Conference of American States, held in Mexico on the 27th of January, 1902, with such modifications as are expressed in the present Convention.

ARTICLE 2

{Sidenote: Union; Bureaus at Havana and Rio de Janeiro}

A union is const.i.tuted of the nations of America, which will be rendered effective by means of two Bureaus, which will be maintained, one in the city of Havana and the other in that of Rio de Janeiro, each working closely with the other, to be styled Bureaus of the International American Union for the Protection of Intellectual and Industrial Property, and will have for their object the centralization of the registration of literary and artistic works, patents, trade-marks, drawings, models, etc., which will be registered, in each one of the signatory nations, according to the respective treaties and with a view to their validity and recognition by the others.

{Sidenote: Registration optional}

This international registration is entirely optional with persons interested, since they are free to apply, personally or through an attorney-in-fact, for registration in each one of the States in which they seek protection.

ARTICLE 3

{Sidenote: Bureau at Havana}

The Bureau established in the city of Havana will have charge of the registrations from the United States of America, the United States of Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, San Domingo, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Colombia.

{Sidenote: Bureau at Rio de Janeiro}

The Bureau established in the city of Rio de Janeiro will attend to the registrations coming from the republics of the United States of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador.

ARTICLE 4

{Sidenote: Bureaus to be considered as one}

For the purpose of the legal unification of the registration, the two International Bureaus, which are divided merely with a view to greater facility of communication, are considered as one, and to this end it is established that (a) both shall have the same books and the same accounts kept under an identical system; (b) copies shall be transmitted monthly from one to the other, authenticated by the Governments in whose territories they have their seat, of all the registrations, communications, and other doc.u.ments affecting the recognition of the rights of proprietors or authors.

ARTICLE 5

{Sidenote: Copies of registrations to be transmitted}

Each one of the Governments adhering to the Union will send at the end of each month to the proper Bureau, according to Art. 3, authenticated copies of all registrations of trade-marks, patents, drawings, models, etc., and copies of the literary and artistic works registered in them, as well as of all lapses, renunciations, transfers, and other alterations occurring in proprietary rights, according to the respective treaties and laws, in order that they may be sent out or distributed and notice given of them as the case may be by the International Bureau to those nations in direct correspondence therewith.

ARTICLE 6

{Sidenote: Bureaus to transmit certificates}

The registration or deposit of drawings, models, etc., made in the country of origin according to the national law of the same and transmitted by the respective administration to the International Bureau, shall be by such Bureau laid before the other countries of the Union, by which it shall be given full faith and credit, except in the case provided for in Art. 9 of the Treaty on Patents, Trade-Marks, etc., of Mexico, and in case the requirements essential to the recognition of international property are lacking where literary or artistic works are involved according to the treaty thereon subscribed in Mexico.

{Sidenote: Protection to be allowed or refused within one year}

In order that the States forming the Union may accept or refuse the recognition of the rights granted in the country of origin, and for the further legal purposes of such recognition, such States shall be allowed a term of one year from the date of notification by the proper office for the purpose of so doing.

{Sidenote: Notification in case protection is not allowed}

In case patents, trade-marks, drawings, models, etc., or the right to literary or artistic works shall fail to obtain recognition on the part of any one of the offices of the States forming the Union, the International Bureau shall be made acquainted with the facts and reasons of the case in order that in its turn these facts may be transmitted by it to the office of origin and to the interested party, for proper action according to local law.

ARTICLE 7

{Sidenote: Registration in country of origin to have same effect as registration in each country}

{Sidenote: Term of protection, that of country of origin}

Every registration or recognition of intellectual and industrial rights made in one of the countries of the Union and communicated to the others according to the form prescribed in the preceding articles shall have the same effect that would be produced if said registration or recognition had taken place in all of them, and every nullification or lapse of rights occurring in the country of origin and communicated in the same form to the others shall produce in them the same effect that it would produce in the former.

{Sidenote: If no term by law, then as specified}

{Sidenote: Copyright, 25 years after death of author}

The period of international protection derived from the registration shall be that recognized by the laws of the country where the rights originated or have been recognized; and if said laws do not provide for such matters or do not specify a fixed period, the respective periods shall be: for patents, 15 years; for trade-marks or commercial designs, models, and industrial drawings, 10 years; for literary and artistic works, 25 years, counting from the death of the author thereof. The first two periods may be renewed at will by giving the same form as in the case of the first registration.