[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1689 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1689

  To modify the prohibition on recognition by United States courts of 
 certain rights relating to certain marks, trade names, or commercial 
                                 names.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 19, 2005

     Mr. Feeney (for himself, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Smith of Texas, Mrs. 
 Blackburn, Ms. Hart, Mr. Meek of Florida, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. 
 Engel, Mr. Boyd, Ms. Harris, Mr. Foley, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Ms. 
Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Payne, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Keller, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Green 
  of Wisconsin, Mr. Hoyer, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To modify the prohibition on recognition by United States courts of 
 certain rights relating to certain marks, trade names, or commercial 
                                 names.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. MODIFICATION OF PROHIBITION.

    Section 211 of the Department of Commerce and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 1999 (as contained in section 101(b) of division A 
of Public Law 105-277; 112 Stat. 2681-88) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(2)--
                    (A) by striking ``by a designated national''; and
                    (B) by inserting before the period ``that was used 
                in connection with a business or assets that were 
                confiscated unless the original owner of the mark, 
                trade name, or commercial name, or the bonafide 
                successor-in-interest has expressly consented'';
            (2) in subsection (b), by striking ``by a designated 
        national or its successor-in-interest'';
            (3) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e);
            (4) by inserting after subsection (c) the following:
    ``(d) Subsections (a)(2) and (b) of this section shall apply only 
if the person or entity asserting the rights knew or had reason to know 
at the time when the person or entity acquired the rights asserted that 
the mark, trade name, or commercial name was the same as or 
substantially similar to a mark, trade name, or commercial name that 
was used in connection with a business or assets that were 
confiscated.''; and
            (5) in subsection (e), as so redesignated, by striking ``In 
        this section:'' and all that follows through ``(2) The term'' 
        and inserting ``In this section, the term''.
                                 <all>