RADIO MONOPOLY IS ABUSED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18550, 25 August 1928, Page 6

RADIO MONOPOLY IS ABUSED.

ROYALTIES TOO HIGH, OFFICIALS STATE. (United Press Aasn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received August. 25, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, August 34. The Patent Office announces that a special tribunal heard the Loewe Radio Company’s application for either a compulsory license under, or revocation of, five letters patent owned by the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company and the British Thompson, Houston Company. The tribunal is satisfied that abuse of monopoly rights has been established, and has decided that the applicants should be granted a license, paying royalties of ten shillings for each triple valve and 7s 6d for each double valve, subject to a condition under which the parties are allowed 21 days to settle. The applicants claim that wireless receiving sets equal to a three-valve set could be made and sold in Britain for 30s each, and eventually under mass production for 255. The wholesale price in Germany was 255, and the retail price 39s 6d. Royalties amounting to £35,000 were paid to the Telefunken Company in 1927. Loewe’s are prepared to pay an equivalent in royalties to Marconis, and are also anxious immediately to transfer the manufacture of sets to Britain. The Comptroller-General and the Assistant Comptroller, in announcing this decision, are of opinion that royalties of 37s 6d on the Loewe triple valve and 62s 6d on the long-range sets are over high. They say that respondents’ insistence thereon, and the refusal of more reasonable terms will prejudice the establishment of a new British industry and that a commercial policy of excluding large sections of the public from the full enjoyment of broadcasting is not justifiable.—Australian Press Association—United Service.