Business & Finance: Bosch Settlement

When Herr-Inventor Robert Bosch incorporated Bosch Magneto Co. of New York it was to be a subsidiary of his Robert Bosch Aktiengesellschaft. But in 1917 the U. S. company was seized as alien property, sold, reorganized as American Bosch Magneto Co. In 1921 Herr Bosch again invaded U. S. markets, forming Robert Bosch Magneto Co., Inc., of Long Island City. Quickly American Bosch Co. brought suit, charged they alone had right to the Bosch name, won a verdict that prevented Inventor Bosch from using his name on products marketed in the U. S.

Last week Herr Bosch practically reversed the court’s settlement, not by any legal action but by an agreement with his U. S. rivals. Closely did this follow rumors that German Bosch had been buying stock in U. S. Bosch. Terms of the plan (which will last 49 years) are that in the U. S., its dependencies, Canada. Mexico and Cuba, American Bosch Magneto Co. can use on all its products the magic name Bosch and the German interests must use the full title, Robert Bosch, while in other parts of the world the German’s will use Bosch, and the U. S. company American Bosch.

Coincident with this settlement was a request that the U. S. government discontinue a civil suit brought against onetime Alien Property Custodians Francis P. Garvan and A. Mitchell Palmer, the eleven partners of Hornblower & Weeks, the Chase Securities Co. and others.

Charged in the suit was that the defendants had conspired to defraud the government by arranging the sale of the seized Bosch property for $4,500,000, some $5,000,000 less than it was allegedly worth.* Since if the suit were won the proceeds would eventually go to the German Bosch Co, the petition to discontinue it seemed to indicate that Herr Bosch’s agreement with the U. S. interests had become very complete indeed.

*Other companies seized under the Alien Property Act included: Bayer Aspirin, Botany Worsted Mills, Merck & Co., Gera Mills, Pabst Brewing Co., Locomotive Superheater Co., International Textiles, Inc.