Show SHREWD AMERICANS FORFEIT RIGHTS TO GERMANS Property Open to Seizure Through Signing Open I Power of Attorney II WASHINGTON Nov ov 17 MIllions of dollars dollars' worth of American property InGerman inGerman In m German Austria Bulgaria and Turkey Is subject today to confiscation under forms of law and Its owners will 1 j have ha ve veno no redress This Thle dl discovery covery has hall been o en made recently In examining Ameri American fl business mens men's applications for Cor patents In those thoe countries Some of the shrewdest and mo most t ra rapacious ra- ra American corporation n men who have had smart mart lawyers drive a coach and six through American laws and ana regulation have fallen for Cor a Gorman German legal le le- le gal gul flimflam as crude as the old lightning rod roil contracts The birth rate of tall Call guy guys has been maintained In America U in UI recent years ears but It had been beau supposed that hat even the most Innocent of American trusts had gotten over the habit of af affixing nf- nf fixing its officers officers' signa signatures lures to documents docu docu- ments which were vere not read Hut But In hundreds of cases American firms have signed powers of attorney in ill German or Hungarian which they evidently did not read as the they practically sign n away every right These powers or of attorney have accompanied every patent application and the foreign patent at- at torne assured their victims they were purely a matter of form Whether these cunning traps were a apart apart apart part of oC the German preparedness for Cor the great war for world loot Is not Known but if they had been designed for war wartime wartime I II II time I confiscation c they hey could not hot have I ll ded been I better worded In the first place the tue powers of ot I attorney ney are made out In blank and there is nothing to prevent the foreign patent at attorney attorney attorney at- at torney from putting In the name of Kaiser Wilhelm himself or any designated designated delg gent agent The blank biank person to whom these powers powers pow pow- ers era are given i Is entitled to accept servIce service service ice of oC process of all IlU kinds especially complaints to Initiate and withdraw alt all kinds of legal processes to effect and to desist from Crom cautionary proceedings and temporary actions to receive money and moneys money's worth and nd to appoint a a. substitute substitute substitute tute for the entire scope of this power or any part thereof In plain English all this legal verbiage means means the foreign government Is given entire control of the property and Is en entitled entitled entitled en- en titled to go into court and surrender it entirely to any man who chooses to bring suit suit suit-or or to the government Any Anyone one of these powers of attorney could be used to consent to the seizure by the foreign government of oC all the tile property covered b by It It without any proviSion provision provision pro pro- I vision for compensation It is t too o late to remedy the errors of the past but the federal trade commission commission commission commis commis- sion in the future will refuse to license any American firm to apply for a patent patent patent pat pat- ent with any such power of oC attorney at at- at While the commission Is not created to act as a guardian of the mentally defective defective de de- de- de it may perhaps save some American AmerIcan Ameri Amen can business men from the consequences of their folly I |