  :this article is about the company which operated the hmv record label. :for the hmv records label, see his master's voice.  the gramophone company, based in the united kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "his master's voice" (hmv) label. although the company was merged with another in 1931 to form electric and musical industries limited (emi), the company title as "the gramophone company limited" continued in use in the uk into the 1970s, for instance on sleeves and labels of records (such as the dark side of the moon by pink floyd, vinyl copies of which bear the copyright notice "Â©1973 the gramophone company, ltd."). == history == the uk gramophone company was founded by william barry owen and his partner/investor trevor williams in 1897 as the uk partner of emile berliner's united states based united states gramophone company, which had been founded in 1892. in december 1900, william owen gained the manufacturing rights for the lambert typewriter company and the gramophone company was for a few years renamed to the gramophone & typewriter ltd. thumb|the gramophone co. trade mark as it appeared on the reverse of early single-sided british gramophone records thumb|an early gramophone co. record label showing the original trade mark thumb|an early gramophone co. record label showing the hmv trade mark in 1900, the united states branch of gramophone lost a patent infringement suit, brought on by columbia records and zonophone, and was no longer permitted to produce records in the usa. gramophone's talking machine manufacturer, eldridge r. johnson, being left with a large factory and thousands of talking machines with no records to play on them, filed suit that year to be permitted to make records himself, and won, in spite of the negative verdict against berliner. this victory by johnson, which would be used in naming the new record company the victor talking machine company he would found the following year, may have been in part due to a patent-pooling handshake agreement with columbia that allowed the latter to begin producing flat records themselves, which they began doing in 1901, (all columbia records had previously been cylinders). contrary to some sources, the victor talking machine company was never a branch or subsidiary of gramophone, as johnson's manufactory, which had been making talking machines for berliner, was his own company with many mechanical patents that he owned, which patents were valuable in the patent pool agreement with columbia. thus, victor and columbia began making flat records in america,
British_record_labels EMI Media_companies_of_the_United_Kingdom Phonograph_manufacturers Record_labels_disestablished_in_1931