Franklin Seely

“ Any person, being a citizen or subject of one of the contracting states, who has made an invention in the useful arts, may be granted a patent for the same in any other contracting state in the same manner and under the same conditions as if he were a citizen thereof. ”

“ In formulating terms for reciprocity between the American nations, with respect to patents for inventions, it is observed, first of all, that no scheme can be framed which will be more liberal towards foreigners than the existing law of the United States. ”

“ Subjects or citizens of each of the contracting states shall enjoy in all the other states, in respect to patents for invention, all the rights their respective subjects or citizens now possess or may hereafter possess. ”

“ That law places them in all respects on the same footing as our own citizens, both in regard to the conditions on which letters patent are granted and those under which patent rights are subsequently upheld by the courts. This liberality towards foreigners is, indeed, characteristic of the laws of the American nations generally. They grant their patents to citizens and aliens alike, and upon the same terms. ”

“ Article IV is in accordance with the law of the United States. It is more liberal than most of the Spanish American patent laws, since under them a patent may be vitiated after the grant if it is found that the invention had prior to application been so fully published as to make it possible to put it in practice. ”

“ But the conditions under which the validity of a patent in some American countries may be vitiated after the grant bear somewhat hard on the foreigner if, as is natural, he happen to have first secured a patent in his own country. ”

“ Persons who are permanently domiciled or have industrial establishments in any one of the contracting states shall, in respect to the rights guarantied by the above article, be regarded as citizens of that state. ”

“ They shall have the same protection and the same legal recourse against all infringements of their rights, subject to the formalities and conditions imposed by the domestic legislation of each state upon its own subjects or citizens. ”