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To: Tom Hoff who wrote (2914)	1/6/1999 5:56:00 PM
From: Joe Master	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8393

So you admit there is a problem in collecting phase change royalties. If companies making cd-rw products are balking why would they not balk at paying for dvd? I am not saying that I know anything specific I am just tring to look at this logically. I am not sure I am right but I think until revenues start to flow there is no way to know that I am wrong either.

To: Tom Hoff who wrote (2914)	1/9/1999 1:15:00 PM
From: Michael Latas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8393

Tom, it is rather apparent that some members of this thread did not receive ECD's press release early last fall announcing that we had finally been granted our basic patent on our phase change re-writable technology. In particular, not all posters or lurkers are investors in ECD. This was another very major milestone, following the issuance in Japan of our basic patent for our Ovonic NiMH batteries earlier in the year. Some companies will simply not pay royalties to anyone until after patents have been issued. Now that this has occurred we should be signing up the remaining holdouts and start receiving royalties. And Tom, as you know, royalties are typically paid every six months with some licensee's dragging their heels until the last possible moment, before late charge penalties kick in, before making their payments. Even under this worst case scenario we will start receiving royalties from all licensee's this year. And our momentum has been building up from virtually all sources. We will have a very good revenue stream building up for us. Is there still any question remaining in anyone's mind regarding our phase change re-writable technology becoming the new world standard replacing CD-ROM's? Now, to put things into proper perspective, as it would relate to any American company being awarded patents in Japan, and in particular, any patents of significance, it is darned near impossible for this to happen. Here is a landmark case in point. Texas Instruments was the company that first developed the transistor, which was a major blockbuster breakthrough that replaced the vacuum tube back in 1958. The engineer's name on the patent application was Kilby. Virtually every country in the developed world honored that famous "Kilby" transistor patent with the exception of Japan. Texas Instruments fought to get their patent acknowledged and issued in Japan for over thirty years without success. The Japanese courts ended up throwing the contested appeals case out of court on the basis that all of the material, witnesses, evidence and what have you was historically outdated, or words to that effect, ending all possible recourse by Texas Instruments. Can you begin to imagine how much time and expense Texas Instruments spent in fighting all of their appeals? Texas Instruments is not the only big time major US company to face problems like this. It's a crime that the US government allows this type of conduct to take place. I'll leave it at that. I hope I made my point. Our two basic patents issued in Japan last year should take on some new significance to the members of this thread. Regards.