Volume 50 · 255
Public Law 75–317
To protect the copyrights and patents of foreign exhibitors at the New York World’s Fair, to be held at New York City, New York, in 1939.
Approved June 11, 1937
Statutory text
JOINT RESOLUTION
To protect the copyrights and patents of foreign exhibitors at the New York World’s Fair, to be held at New York City, New York, in 1939.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the Librarian of Congress and the Commissioner of Patents are hereby authorized and directed to establish branch offices under the direction of the Register of Copyrights and the Commissioner of Patents, respectively, in suitable quarters on the grounds of the New York World’s Fair, to be held at New York City, New York, under the direction of the New York World’s Fair Corporation, Incorporated, a New York corporation, said quarters to be furnished free of charge by said corporation, said offices to be established at such time as may, upon sixty days’ advance notice, in writing, to the Register of Copyrights and the Commissioner of Patents, respectively, be requested by said New York World’s Fair Corporation, but not earlier than January 1, 1939, and to be maintained until the close to the general
Certificate of proprietorship to be issued.
public of said exposition; and the proprietor of any foreign copyright, or any certificate of trade-mark registration, or letters patent of invention, design, or utility model issued by any foreign government protecting any trade mark, apparatus, device, machine, process, method, composition of matter, design, or manufactured article imported for exhibition and exhibited at said fair may upon presentation of proof of such proprietorship, satisfactory to the Register of Copyrights or the Commissioner of Patents, as the case may be, obtain without charge and without prior examination as to novelty, a certificate from such branch office, which shall be prima facie evidence in the Federal courts of such proprietorship, the novelty of the subject matter covered by any such certificate to be determined by a Federal court in case an action or suit is brought based thereon; and said branch offices shall keep registers of all such certificates
Registers to be kept.
issued by them, which shall be open to public inspection.
At the close of said New York World’s Fair the register of certificates
Deposit at close of Fair.
of the copyright registrations aforesaid shall be deposited in the Copyright Office in the Library of Congress at Washington, District of Columbia, and the register of all other certificates of registration aforesaid shall be deposited in the United States Patent Office at Washington, District of Columbia, and there preserved for future reference. Certified copies of any such certificates shall, upon
Certified copies of certificates.
request, be furnished by the Register of Copyrights or the Commissioner of Patents, as the case may be, either during or after said exposition, and at the rates charged by such officials for certified copies of other matter; and any such certified copies shall be admissible in evidence in lieu of the original certificates in any Federal court.
Sec. 2.
It shall be unlawful for any person without authority of the
Infringement of rights unlawful.
proprietor thereof to copy, republish, imitate, reproduce, or practice at any time during the period specified in section 6 hereof any subject matter protected by registration as aforesaid at either of the branch offices at said exposition which shall be imported for exhibition at said exposition, and there exhibited and which is substantially different in a copyright, trade mark, or patent sense, as the case may be, from anything publicly used, described in a printed publication or otherwise known in the United States of America prior to such registration at either of said branch offices as aforesaid; and any
Liabilities.
person who shall infringe upon the rights thus protected under this Act shall be liable—
To an injunction restraining such infringement issued by
Injunction.
any Federal court having jurisdiction of the defendant;
To pay to the proprietor such damages as the proprietor may
Pecuniary damages.
have suffered due to such infringement, as well as all the profits which the infringer may have made by reason of such infringement, and in proving profits the plaintiff shall be required to prove sales only and the defendant shall be required to prove every element of cost which he claims, or in lieu of actual damages and profits such damages as to the court shall appear to be just;
To deliver upon an oath, to be impounded during the pendency
Delivery of articles that infringe.
of the Act, upon such terms and conditions as the court may prescribe, all articles found by the court after a preliminary hearing to infringe the rights herein protected; and
To deliver upon an oath, for destruction, all articles found
Destruction.
by the court at final hearings to infringe the rights herein protected.
Sec. 3.
Any person who willfully and for profit shall infringe
Infringement; penalty provisions.
any right protected under this Act, or who shall knowingly and willfully aid or abet such infringement, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for not exceeding one year or by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or both, in the discretion of the court.
Sec. 4.
All the Acts, regulations, and provisions which apply to protecting copyrights, trade marks, designs, and patents for inventions or discoveries not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act shall apply to certificates issued pursuant to this Act, but no notice of copyright on the work shall be required for protection hereunder.
Sec. 5.
Nothing contained in this Act shall bar or prevent the proprietor of the subject matter covered by any certificate issued pursuant to this Act from obtaining protection for such subject matter under the provisions of the copyright, trade mark, or patent laws of the United States of America, as the case may be, in force prior hereto, and upon making application and complying with the provisions prescribed by such laws; and nothing contained in this Act shall prevent, lessen, impeach, or avoid any remedy at law or inequity 11So in original. under any certificate of copyright registration, certificate of trade-mark registration, or letters patent for inventions or discoveries or designs issued under the copyright, trade mark, or patent laws of the United States of America, as the case may be, in force prior hereto, and which any owner thereof and of a certificate issued thereon pursuant to this Act might have had if this Act had not been passed, but such owner shall not twice recover the damages he has sustained or the profit made by reason of any infringement thereof.
Sec. 6.
The rights protected under the provisions of this Act as to any copyright, trade mark, apparatus, device, machine, process, method, composition of matter, design, or manufactured article imported for exhibition at said New York World’s Fair shall begin on the date the same is placed on exhibition at said exposition and shall continue for a period of six months from the date of the closing to the general public of said exposition.
Sec. 7.
All necessary expenses incurred by the United States in carrying out the provisions of this Act shall be reimbursed to the Government of the United States by the New York World’s Fair, under regulations to be prescribed by the Librarian of Congress and the Commissioner of Patents, respectively; and receipts from such reimbursements shall be deposited as refunds to the appropriations from which such expenses were paid.
Approved, June 11, 1937.