Has Government Paid £10,000?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 1

Has Government Paid £10,000?

FOR WIRELESS PATENTS COMPANY TO GET FEES By a payment on the basis of 3s a year for each listener the Post and Telegraph Department will discharge its future obligations to Amalgamated Wireless (Australia), Ltd., relating to patent rights over apparatus used in Government wireless and in broadcasting stations. This was announced on Saturday by the' Postmaster-General, the Hon. W. Nosworthy. It is stated in authoritative quarters that the department has also paid to Amalgamated Wireless the sum of £IO,OOO, representing past fees. When the various stations were being established, Amalgamated Wireless notified the Government that patents were being made use of. However, the company’s claims were not investigated until a few months ago. “Five years ago the company held a big stick over our heads and claimed 25s for each valve socket,” said an Auckland radio man this morning. “This would have meant the huge sum of £6 5s on a five-valve set. The dealers decided that the only thing they could do for the time being was to go ahead and await negotiations. “The latest news !s a great relief to all of us, but it has not been entirely unexpected because a similar basis of agreement was reached in Australia about 18 months ago.” The Postmaster-General’s announcement says that the agreement provides for payment on practically the same basis as that arranged for in Australia. On October 31, 1932, the agreement will expire, and in recognition of the payment, which will be made from the Consolidated Fund, the Government is free to make use of the company’s patents. It is not intended that the annual fee (30s a year) now paid by listeners should be increased at present. Mr. Nosworthy added that, although the commercial stations had been in operation since approximately 1910 no patent fees had been paid, but the agreement would provide for a payment for a term up to October, 1932. THE SUN is informed that this provision includes a lump sum of £IO,BOO which was handed over as recently as since the General Elections. The amount of this payment has come as a surprise to radio dealers, many of whom consider that the department was unwise to make it at such a time, and before the full facts of the position had been investigated.