THE THEFT OF PATTERNS.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 11958, 11 June 1907, Page 4

THE THEFT OF PATTERNS.

aa— •__•_»_ c The theft, of patterns by foreign \ agents has become a scandal in Eng- ( land. Immediately Nottingham Qrms place on the English markets any novelties in lace goods which ] show signs of taking the public's fancy, the patterns, and samples of j goods are at once despatched by agents to manufacturers in Switzerland. In tbese foreign factories. * owing to smaller wages and longer hours, the same class of goods cau j be produced at a smaller oost, and .< they are sent to England and sold < there at at lower prices than those phvopfl on^ the English lace. The j Nottingham manufacturers have the , trouble and expense of originating designs- only about one in ten appeals to the public— and foreigners pick their v,niics and capture the trade. A Nottingham manufacturer who goes to great trouble to bring out new designs, sa.ys that when he thinks he has an excluisve novelty, he is informed by travellers and tradesmen that exactly the same ; pattern aud class of goods is being offered at 10 per cent; less money. "Jfc is impossible for me to place a good article on the English market and reap the benefit, for in less than a month my foreign rivals beat me in my own 'country. My men find the brains, [ find their wages, and foreigners, who often keep no designers, havo the benefit of my outlay and fore-thought." One firm found recently that the agent who was supplying its rivals in Franco with information. concerning its designs, was one of its own em--1 ployees. He confessed that be had been receiving gocd sums of money for sending abroad patterns, samples, prices, and full deiails of the amount of trade done. When tho _ rench firm's attentiou were drawn to these facts, the reply, iv substance, was, "Everybody for himself, " and tbat the English firm had a similar chance to copy Freuch patterns.