Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-14
SOUND FILMS AID
PICTURE INDUSTRY
Hundreds of Patents and
Licenses Involved in Com
pick Trade Situation.
Special Dispatch to The Star,

Special Dispatch to The Star,
NEW YORK, September 13..The
talking cinema has made the motion
picture industry the most complex
corporate machine in the world. Time
was when the movies, In matters of
control and management, were based
on relatively simple contractual agree
ments. But today, says Dr. Franklin
S. Irby, associate editor of Electronics,
In announcing the results of q recent
worldwide study, the industry is vast
international network of interlacing
patent agreements and licenses, extend
ing in its influence to $1,000 theaters
serving hundreds of millions of people
in every center OF population outside
the jungles and deserts
Hundreds of patents, all based on
applications of the vacuum or electronic
tube, form the foundation of the talk
ing picture industry, field in which
American and foreign companies today
have an investment stake variously esti-
mated at $l00,000,000 The names OF
the American Telephone 81 Telegraph
Co., General Electric Co., western
Electric Co., Siemens e. Halske, the
great German manufacturing organiza-
ton; the Radio Corporation of America,
Allgemeine Electricians Gasellschaft,
German company in which General
Electric has a share; and the great
Klangf1lm, Tonbild Syndicate A.-G
(Tob1S) and Kuechenmeister patent and
finance combines of Europe figure
prominently in the development of the
talkies. German, Swiss and Dutch
capital plays an important part in the
world sound film situation.
One outstanding agreement which
ties in both American and foreign pro-
ducers, manufacturers and exhibitors
Is that reached at the Sound Picture
Conference in Paris last July by the
Electrical Research Products, Inc,
wholly owned subsidiary of the West
ern Electric Co.. the Radio Corporation
of America and the Tobis and Klang-
film interests.
The First Agreement.
History of the motion picture industry
as a really important factor in business
and finance, says the editor, dates back
to the earliest licensing agreement on
record. 1t was reached some time
prior to the advent of the sound film
between the American Telephone g.
Telegraph Co. and the Radio Corpora
ton. The General Electric and West
lnghouse organizations participated in
this agreement.
Electrical Research Products (ErpD
signatory to the Paris conference sales
and license pact, was formed to handle
licensing of Western Electric sound APP
paratus, and its licensees include War
ner Bros; Fox Film Corporation, Metro
Goldwyn Pictures, Paramount, United
Artists and others. r. c. A-Photo-
phone is an organization similar to Erpi,
but Is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Radio Corporation of America, with its
licensees including R-K-O Pictures,
Pathe, Tiffany, Educational Films and
others.
In their international licensing agree
mentS Erpi and r. C. A.-Photophone
tie in with the worldwide sound pic
ture set-up such producing units as
British and Dominion Films of London,
neutrality-suspicious. of France and the
Paramount-oWned Kane studio in join
vile, France. all licensed by Erpi, and
H. M. " Gramophone, Twickenham
Film Studios, British Lion Films, Brit
fish International Pictures, the Gau-
mont Co. and GainSborough Pictures
all r. c. A.-Photophone licensees, as
are Establishment jacques Haik, France;
Pathe Cinema, France, and S. A. I'M
mobiliare Cinematographia, Italy.
In Europe as in America, DR.. Irby
points out the foundation of the sound
picture industry came through large
electrical companies. These controlled
great number of patents covering
tubes amplifiers, electrical recording
and other developments, without which
there could be no talking cinema. These
companies set up licensing machinery,
which is dominated by the Klangfiln-
Tobls : Kuechenmeister groups. They
effected agreements with the American
licensing units, and the result is an in
dustry which blankets the world.
European Groups.
The Kuechenmeister combination was
formed as holding company in 1928
by the banking house of Oyens & Sons
and represents one of the earliest patent
pools in the European field. Talking
and monograph disc manufac-
ture, as well as radio, are elements in
the Kuechenmeister set-up, which has
its financial center in Holland and its
center In Germay. This
groups owns about 26 per cent of the
Tobis capital stock. Another 80 per cent
of the Tobis capital is held by a Ger
man banking syndicate under the Com
merz and Privatbank. Tobis, founded
with German, Swiss and Dutch capital, |
consolidateS 500 sound-picture patents,
builds reproducing apparatus and has |
an agreement for the sale of German |
domestic pictures and sound-film appa-
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