BRITISH WIRELESS ROYALTIES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 15

BRITISH WIRELESS ROYALTIES

Becent cable messages have referred to a subject which.has for a considerable time caused a good deal of trouble in Britain —the collection of Marconi royalties on manufactured receivers at the rate of 128 6d per valve. The first matter referred to was a case in which an appeal was made to the proper authorities to evade the full imposition of the royalty on the "triple" and "double" valves made under the Loewe system,' the, royalty being charged aB for three and two separate valves. The Patent Office tribunal decided that the applicants should be granted, licenses paying royalties of 10s on each triple valve and 7s 6d on each double valve, subject to a condition which was not stated in the cable message. The Comp-troller-General and the Assistant Comp-

troller, announcing the cloeision, express the opinion that the royalties oi 37s Oil on tho Loewc triple-valve and 62s Gil on a long-range set v/cro too high, and tho respondents 1 insistence oil these ratos aiid the refusal of more reasonable terms prejudiced tho establishment of a new British industry (tho manufacture of Locwe valves). The commercial policy of excluding large sections of tho public from the full enjoyment of broadcasting was not justifiable. The rate of royalty thus fixed is, without other evidence, surprisingly low, biit the position is clarified by a later message regarding an application by the Brownie Wireless Company for a license to manufacture valve sets under patents now held by tho Marconi Company. The tribunal decided that the royalties obtained on certain Marconi valve holders should be reduced from 12s 6d to 10 per cent, on the wholesale soiling prico, subject to a minimum charge of 5s on the first valve holder and 2s 6d on each additional valve holder, while tho parties wore asked to come to an agreement on the terms of license within 21 days. The decision is virtually aconsent to claims which have lately been ventilated at Home that tho 12s (id per valve royalty was absurdly high when imposed on low-priced sets, amounting in fact to a very large percentage of the total cost, though applied to costly receivers the royalties were relatively unimportant. When one realises that the listeners of Great Britain, hdlding over two million licenses, must utilise some millions of valves among ,theni, tho financial significance of the royalty position is apparent.