8493. TRADE MARKS, Recommended.—
The Secretary of State, to whom was referred
by the House of Representatives the petition
of Samuel Breck and others, proprietors
of a sail-cloth manufactory in Boston, praying
that they may have the exclusive privilege of
using particular marks for designating the sail-cloth
of their manufactory, has had the same
under consideration, and thereupon reports:
That it would, in his opinion, contribute to fidelity
in the execution of manufactures, to secure
to every manufactory an exclusive right to
some mark on its wares, proper to itself.
This should be done by general laws, extending
equal right to every case to which the authority
of the Legislature should be competent. These
cases are of divided jurisdiction: Manufactures
made and consumed within a State being
subject to State legislation, while those which
are exported to foreign nations, or to another
State, or into the Indian Territory, are alone
within the legislation of the General Government.
That it will, therefore, be reasonable
for the General Government to provide in this
behalf by law for those cases of manufacture
generally, and those only which relate to commerce
with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes. This
may be done by permitting the owner of every
manufactory, to enter in the records of the court
of the district wherein his manufactory is, the
name with which he chooses to mark or designate
his wares, and rendering it penal in others
to put the same mark to any other wares.—
Report on Trade Marks. Washington ed. vii, 563.
( Dec. 1791)
