1 was only a brief five years a Shanghai. business circles, ormmon with those of all the Treaty Ports, were much agitated over the question of the registration of trade marks, The question seemed whittle down, really, to one of security of tenure as much as anything, and though at first merchants and others concerned were officially advised by their Consulates to ignore Peking's directions, eventual Ty an understanding was reached and all reputable firms registered their marks.
It ip possible that the majority of people searcely realize how mu this. means, although almost every business firm here must be intel ested in at least one trade marl In the ease of the piece goods houses and the British-American Tobacco Ca, to instance only two ranches of trade, thousands of trade marks are concerned, eae', firm. being interested in' many hundreds. "It cost one piece goods firm alone over $20,000 to register its 250 marks at Peking, and it is quite likely others spent even more. Some firnty have to have qualified doing very ttle else but attending to the problems centring round trade marks, outcome, He said that he could see very little difference between the present situation and that exi in 1923 and he anticipated a similar ending. During the former argument, ko said, chambers of commerce and trade conferences were unanimous that they would stand firm and would not allow themselves to be victimized. The big people were quite prepared to hold out to the bitter end, but gradually the smaller houses, perhaps concerned ith only a solitary trade mark, began to think that it was not worth all the bother. Tt would cost them '$10 or s0 to see the thing through and, even if they did not get what hhad'been promised, their loss would be insignificant, whilst, on the other hand, if their marks were pirated and they had not been registered with the new authority, they would not be able to secure redress, if it should happen that th: new authority was the only one in position to give punishment. So, one by one, they drew away from the main body, and, as the accumulation of drops of water makes an ocean, their defection eventually put the big houses in a minor and they had to surrender,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.