Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]After the experience Zeiss and Leitz had after World War I, they were extremely careful to only assign US rights to their US agencies. When Germany declared War on the US on 10 December 1941, the US Government seized both ELNY and Carl Zeiss, U.S.A. and the patent and trademark rights of both of these companies and Franke & Heidecke and Voigtlander and so forth. But all the US government acquired were the US rights to these intellectual properties, NOT the world-wide rights. The same situation existed in the UK and France; none of the companies involved had done any direct marketing in the USSR, so there was nothing for them to seize. In short, the Allied Governments in 1945 owned the intellectual property rights of these companies ONLY within their own countries and territories. The Allies never claimed that they gave permission to the Japanese to use Zeiss and Leitz patents; they simply refused to allow the companies to go to law to protect their trademarks, patents, and copyrights. This decision was made on political grounds, not legal ones. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!