TELEVISION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 300, 20 December 1945, Page 5

TELEVISION

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY U-S. TRUSTS COMBINE GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO FREE BRITISH PATENTS Reed. 9 p.m. New York, Dec. 18. To prevent television competition with moving pictures, American film interests here gained control .of advanced British patents and have conspired to prevent their use in the Western Hemisphere. This charge is made by the Attor-ney-General, Mr. Clark, in an antitrust complaint filed in the Federal Court.

The defendants include the Paramount Pictures Corporation and its subsidiary, Television Productions Corporation, the General Precision Equipment Corporation, alleged to be the largest stockholder in the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, the Scophony Corporation of America, allegedly organised by Television Productions and General Precision in furtherance of the conspiracy, and Scophony, Limited, a British firm which owned the basic patents. The complaint declared that the conspiracy forestalled the manufacture and development of improved British equipment in the United States for more than three years. The complaint related that Scophony, Limited, developed two ideas in 1937, and 1939 —the supersonic and skiatron systems, used during eight months prior to the outbreak of the war in televising prize fights, and horse races in London. The systems reproduced images 24 by 20 inches in the home receivers, compared with American images six by eight inches. The Skiatron valve later became the basis for the development of radar. The war halted further development of the systems in England, and Scophony, Limited, sought to transfer experimentation to the United States. Paramount and 20th Century Fox expressed willingness to furnish the necessary capital, provided they would not he obligated to make Scophony inventions available to their competitors. As a reSult Paramount, and 20th Century Fox formed the Sconhony Corporation of America in 1942, which received all patent rights for the Western Hemisphere. Scophony, Limited, In a cartel agreement, retained the exclusive manufacturing and sales rights in the Eastern Hemisphere. The complaint added that the Scophony Corporation directors, representing Paramount and 20th Century subsidiaries, failed to attend directors’ meetings, effectively preventing the corporation from doing business, thus suppressing the manufacture and sale of equipment and preventing competitors "from employing essential advances in the television art.” The Government is seeking an injunction to restrain the defendants from carrying out the existing relationships and to free the patents generally.