Re: [ARSCLIST] RIP: EMI / let's clear the air

[Michael Shoshani <mshoshani@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Olhsson wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> > From Michael Shoshani: "...This info I got from "EMI: The First 100 Years"
> by Peter Martland..."
>
> You can be sure that each side spun a version of the story that would put
> themselves in the best light for their stockholders and employees. 

That doesn't make sense to me, only because "both sides of the story", 
if you will, are being told by EMI. You heard from EMI employees that 
EMI cut the cords, while an illustrated history of EMI, copyrighted and 
plublished by EMI Group PLC, says that EMI was on the receiving end of 
the cuts, and under circumstances that don't necessarily put EMI in any 
decent light at all.

> My
> understanding was that the Columbia/EMI deal was between independent
> entities and not a case of one company having purchased the assets and
> trademarks of another like the RCA deal. It makes sense that the 50 year
> deal I was told about must have been just for the trademarks.

Nope. Both Columbia and RCA had to do with catalog material, not 
trademarks.

CBS owned the Columbia trademark outright in the US, and EMI owned it 
outright in the UK. As a matter of fact, EMI once owned US Columbia but 
sold it to ARC in the 1930s when business was bad. (Why did EMI own US 
Columbia? Because the pre-EMI Columbia Phonograph Co. Ltd purchased it, 
so to have access to the Western Electric recording process in 1925.) 
Even after Columbia canceled its EMI licensing agreement and began 
releasing its material in the UK through Phillips, EMI owned the 
Columbia trademark in Europe - and did so right up until a few years ago 
when it sold those rights to Sony.

Same thing with RCA: EMI owned the His Master's Voice dog-and-trumpet 
image in Europe, while RCA (through its acquisition of Victor) owned it 
in the Western Hemisphere. This trademark ownership persisted long after 
RCA cut its ties with EMI; the only things affected with the 
cancellation of the agreement were a) EMI lost Elvis Presley from its 
catalog, along with every other RCA artist, and b) RCA lost access to 
EMI's classical catalog, some of which it had released on a special Red 
Seal "His Master's Voice" label. EMI still owns the HMV trademark in the 
UK and Europe, although they rarely if ever use it these days. Here in 
the USA the only active trademark registration for His Master's Voice is 
for radio-phonograph combinations, owned by Thomson SA. Every other 
trademark registration for His Master's Voice, including for records 
tapes and CD, expired well over a decade ago.


Michael Shoshani
who spends way too much time in the past :)