Normally, the marketplace would self-correct through consumer choice of a lower-priced alternative. European and Japanese standards and licensing fees for similar technologies cost manufacturers approximately $1. According to the Coalition United to Terminate Financial Abuses of the Television Transition, this fee is $4 too high. MPEG LA charges a royalty of $5 for every ATSC license sold, which, in this case, is required for the sale of every television and cable box. The Federal Communication Commission mandates that all television and television receiver equipment manufacturers include certain technology standards in their products that are manufactured to receive a digital broadcast television signal. For example, for-profit MPEG LA’s ATSC pool is charging an excessively high licensing fee. ![]() Unfortunately, some patent pools abuse their exclusive rights to license these technology standards. Most patent pools help create efficiencies in the licensing process by providing innovators easier access to the licenses they require from one source, fostering innovation. Rather, patent pools collectively license complimentary patents, that often comprise a technology standard. Patent pools, like the more commonly discussed patent trolls, do not manufacture anything. Whether the television is built in Michigan, South Carolina, China, or Taiwan, the manufacturers all share a common hurdle that ultimately falls on the shoulders of the American consumer - high licensing fees. In 2013, Element announced plans to build a second assembly facility in South Carolina that will employ 500 more people over the next 5 years. Though a majority of the parts are from China, where many of Element Electronics’ competitor’s televisions are manufactured, the televisions are assembled in the United States. LG owned 100 percent of Zenith by 1999, eventually putting 1,200 workers at Zenith’s Melrose Park facility out of a job.īack in 2012, Element Electronics, a Minnesota-headquartered company, began to assemble televisions in Detroit in a facility employing 100 people. Zenith was the last well-known American made television brand, until it sold off shares to LG, a Korean company in 1995. Abusive licensing patent pools threaten to slow innovation and economic growth charging consumers for technology they may never use. Television manufacturing is beginning to reemerge in the U.S., but manufacturers are being stifled. One of the most expensive and most popular American purchases is the television. ![]() Though the automobile industry may be the most commonly referenced example, some forget that in the past our nation manufactured a variety of products, including consumer electronics. There is no question that the past few decades have brought a decline in American manufacturing.
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