Virginia Law

It shall be lawful for any person at any time engaged in lumbering or rafting in any manner upon the Elizabeth River in the Commonwealth of Virginia, or on any of its tributaries, or in the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal or in the Dismal Swamp Canal or in any river or creek lying within the boundaries of this Commonwealth and connecting with either of such canals or upon the Chesapeake Bay, to adopt a mark of designation wherewith to stamp or mark all sawlogs, piles, hewn timber or square timber put or intended to be put by him in any of such streams to be floated and rafted on the same. Such mark may be either in letters, figures, words, names or other devices at the discretion of the person adopting it.

A statement of the mark so adopted with a certificate appended that the same has been adopted as the mark of designation aforesaid, signed by the person adopting the same, shall be furnished to the clerk of the circuit court of the county or corporation court of the city where such person is doing business and has his principal office.

No person shall be entitled to adopt more than one of any of the respective kinds of marks or stamps aforesaid as his mark of designation, but any such person shall not be prohibited from using any other mark in addition to such mark of designation for distinguishing different kinds or lots of timber obtained from different localities, if it does not interfere with the mark of designation of any other person.

Code 1950, § 59-200; 1968, c. 439.

Repealed by Acts 1994, c. 432.

Any certificate of such mark of designation shall be prima facie evidence of the right of the person filing the same to use the mark or marks mentioned therein.

Code 1950, § 59-202; 1968, c. 439.

Any person, except the owner thereof, taking up and securing any sawlog, pile, hewn timber or square timber detached from any raft and found adrift or aground on any of the waters or streams mentioned in § 59.1-103, shall promptly report such fact to the owner thereof, or shall lodge a list containing a description of the quantity, quality, and marks, if any, of such timber with a magistrate serving the jurisdiction where such timber was so found and secured, which magistrate shall promptly advertise the same for five consecutive days in a newspaper published in the City of Norfolk. If such timber shall not be claimed by the owner thereof within thirty days after such publication it shall be lawful for the magistrate to order the sale thereof at public auction by an officer after giving five days' notice of the time, place, and terms of such sale by not less than six handbills posted in the most public places in the vicinity where the same was found and within the county wherein the magistrate serves. Out of the proceeds of such sale the magistrate, after paying the expenses of the advertisement and handbills, together with all the other costs of such proceeding at law, shall pay to the person or persons who found and secured the timber ten cents for each piece thereof so taken and secured, and the residue of such proceeds of sale shall be paid into the state treasury for the benefit of the Commonwealth.

Code 1950, § 59-203; 1968, c. 439; 2008, cc. 551, 691.

If any person shall fraudulently or willfully use any such registered mark, or shall fraudulently claim to be the owner of any such marked sawlog, pile, square or hewn timber found or being in any of the aforesaid streams or waters, whether floating or aground or tied up to any wharf or other object, either as part of a raft or not, or shall take and carry away any such marked sawlog, pile or piece of square or hewn timber without the authority of the owner thereof, or shall willfully deface or obliterate any such mark, name, figure, letter, or other designation thereon, or shall fraudulently saw, split, consume, destroy, or injure any such marked sawlog, pile, square or hewn timber or shall without the consent of the owner thereof sell or convert the same to his own use unless it shall have been duly forfeited according to the provisions of this chapter or according to other provisions of law, he shall for every such offense upon conviction be confined in jail not less than sixty days and not exceeding twelve months.

Code 1950, § 59-204; 1968, c. 439.

Every person, firm or corporation dealing in logs or timber in any form to be floated on the streams of this Commonwealth shall be called and known as timber dealers, and as such may adopt a brand or trademark in the manner and with the effect hereinafter provided.

Code 1950, § 59-205; 1968, c. 439.

Every such dealer desiring to adopt a brand or trademark who has not heretofore adopted one may do so by the execution and acknowledgement, as deeds are required to be acknowledged, of a writing substantially in form and effect as follows:

"Notice is hereby given that I (or we or the undersigned company, as the
case may be) have (or has) adopted the following brand or trademark to be used
in my (or our or its) business as a timber dealer (or dealers, as the case may
be), to wit: (Here insert the word, letter or letters, or figures, or device
or devices adopted.)

"Given under my (or our or its) hand and seal this......… day of
.........., two thousand..................................................…

.......................................................................(Seal.)"

Such writing may be proved as deeds are proved in this Commonwealth and shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the principal office or place of business of such timber dealer may be and of such other counties as such dealer may do business in. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any person who has heretofore used any particular brand from adopting the same as his trademark, and when he shall have adopted it as his trademark as provided in this section it shall apply to the trees and timber heretofore marked with such brand as well as to such as may be hereafter so marked.

Code 1950, § 59-206; 1968, c. 439.

Every brand or trademark so adopted shall, from the date of its recordation be the exclusive brand or trademark of the person, firm or corporation adopting it, and any other person, firm or corporation knowingly using or attempting to use the same, without authority in writing from the owner thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined for each offense in so using the same not less than $20 nor more than $200, and shall be liable to the owner of such brand or trademark for all the damages sustained by such owner by reason of such unauthorized use.

Code 1950, § 59-207; 1968, c. 439.

Every timber dealer may have a branding iron or hammer with which to impress such brand or trademark on a log, tree or other timber; and any person who shall use such branding iron or hammer or have or use one of like form and making the same brand or trademark, or who shall intentionally and without authority in writing remove, deface, or obliterate or destroy such brand or trademark when once impressed or placed on a log, tree or other timber shall be guilty of a felony, and for each offense shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than three years.

Code 1950, § 59-208; 1968, c. 439.

If any person shall knowingly or fraudulently impress or place such brand or trademark on any log, tree or other timber not his own he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined for each offense not less than $10 nor more than $100 and confined in jail not less than ten nor more than twenty days.

Code 1950, § 59-209; 1968, c. 439.

The placing or impressing such brand or trademark on a log, tree or other marketable timber shall be deemed to be a change of ownership and possession.

Code 1950, § 59-210; 1968, c. 439.

Any person who shall cut down a tree or shall knowingly have in his possession a log or other timber that has been so branded, without the written consent of its owner, and claiming it as his own, or who shall convert it to his own use or offer to sell same, shall be guilty of a felony and punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than two years for each offense, unless the defendant in such case show a bona fide adverse claim or color of title to the timber or logs in question obtained before such branding.

Code 1950, § 59-211; 1968, c. 439.

Every person who shall take, catch, hold or have in his possession any log or other marketable timber, not branded as aforesaid, without the written consent of the owner thereof, shall within ten days after catching, taking up, or getting possession of the same, as aforesaid, report the same in writing to the county clerk of the county in which such person resides, and thirty days after such report is received the sheriff of such county shall sell the same publicly at the courthouse door on the first day of a circuit court in the county, of which notice shall be given by the sheriff for at least ten days by written or printed notices posted at the front door of such courthouse or near thereto and at one or more public places in the county. Any person owning such log or timber may, however, recover the same, by satisfying the sheriff that he is entitled to it, or by action of detinue, as provided by law. Such sale shall be made for cash, and the proceeds when collected, after paying the expenses of sale, including a fee of twenty-five cents for each log or piece of timber so sold, shall be paid to the treasurer of the county for the benefit of the public schools of the district in which the party reporting the same shall at that time reside. Any person failing to report to such clerk, as aforesaid, or to turn over the log or other timber to the sheriff, or any sheriff failing or refusing to advertise and sell such log or timber, as aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not less than $10 nor more than $100 for each offense.

Code 1950, § 59-212; 1968, c. 439.

Repealed by Acts 1994, c. 432.