Copyright: Its History and Its Law

Newspaper articles may be reproduced, but the publication from which they are taken must be mentioned, and the name of the author given, if it should appear in the same.

Article 9

Works bearing names of authors or pseudonyms protected

Copyright shall be recognized in favor of the persons whose names or acknowledged pseudonyms are stated in the respective literary or artistic work or in the petition to which Article 4 of this Convention refers, excepting case of proof to the contrary.

Article 10

Addresses

Addresses delivered or read in deliberative assemblies, before the courts of justice, and in public meetings may be published in the newspaper press without any special authorization.

Article 11

Fragments of literary or artistic works

The reproduction in publications devoted to public instruction or chrestomathy of fragments of literary or artistic works confers no right of property, and may therefore be freely made in all the signatory countries.

Article 12

Infringement defined

All unauthorized indirect use of a literary or artistic work which does not present the character of an original work shall be considered as an unlawful reproduction.

It shall be considered in the same manner unlawful to reproduce in any form an entire work, or the greater part of the same, accompanied by notes or commentaries, under the pretext of literary criticism or of enlargement or completement of an original work.

Article 13

Fraudulent copies to be sequestrated, etc.

All fraudulent works shall be liable to sequestration in the signatory countries in which the original work may have the right of legal protection, without prejudice to the indemnity or punishments to which the falsifiers may be liable according to the laws of the country in which the fraud has been committed.

Article 14

Each Government to exercise supervision

Each one of the Governments of the signatory countries shall remain at liberty to permit, exercise vigilance over, or prohibit the circulation, representation and exposition of any work or production in respect to which the competent authorities shall have power to exercise such right.

Article 15

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

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.

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

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

Union; Bureaus at Havana and Rio de Janeiro

A union is constituted 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.

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

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.

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

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 documents affecting the recognition of the rights of proprietors or authors.

Article 5

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.