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Paid Your EAS License Fee?

by Gary Stigall, CSTE
January 29, 1999

Received your letter from Al yet? Al Eckilson of Quad Dimension in Kansas City, Missori has a letter for every broadcaster in the United States. In that letter, he claims you owe him $240 for a license to use EAS. Yes, the Emergency Alert System.

Al sent me a copy by Federal Express to examine. Al sounds like a nice person on the phone. He told me, "We live in tornado alley here, and I wanted a way to use existing radio transmitters—broadcasters you see are full time, highpower—to relay information about the tornado tracks here." You just enter zip codes or other geographical information about the storm track and the system would notify anyone with a monitor in the affected area. Sounds good. Sounds like EAS.

Mr. Eckilson and his technical buddies—Mike Fessler, Daric Laughlin, and Larry Ganzer—recognized that the older system of tones transmitted from NOAA Weather 162 MHz transmitters covered too broad of an area for tornadoes, hence there were too many false alarms. They invented the "Storm Alert for Emergencies" (SAFE) system to do just that. They received U.S. Patent 5,121,430 on June 12, 1992. They showed it to a manufacturer of weather alert equipment shortly thereafter. The manufacturer was interested.

When the FCC issued a request for comment on inprovements to the EBS system in 1994, Quad Dimension commented about their new SAFE system. Since that time, they've had a sprinkling of press in the Radio World bi-weekly. After the FCC issued its EAS rules and receiver/generators were being produced, their interested manufacturer was no longer interested. (Eckilson wouldn't tell us the name of the manufacturer.)

Why isn't Quad Dimension, like Dolby or dbx, just licensing the technology, charging the hardware companies like TFT and Sage a fee? Those companies could, in turn, mark up their equipment costs to pay for it. Well, set aside for a moment the fact that they would rather have the $180 per year fee from every user ($240 the first year or lump sum of $1495). They want you to consider that "the hardware being sold by the EAS equipment manufacturers is a subset of the patented system." They maintain that the technology involves the whole transmission chain and codes, not just the boxes.

Why now, after over a year of EAS system operation? Quad Dimension was granted a clarifying Reexamination Certificate as recently as September 1998. It was only after this that the partners began pursuing payments. Exactly what is unique about that certificate with respect to the National Weather Service patent is THE BIG QUESTION.

Who are these fellows? We don't really know. When asked about prior experience, Mr. Eckilson said, "I really don't want to get into that." They run an audio retail business from the same office suite called Primus Audio Pleasure. Another business called Signum Corporation originates there as well.

Chris Imlay, General Counsel of SBE, commented in an open letter, "The validity of the patent is currently unknown to SBE, and thus far, neither FCC nor the Commerce Department has asserted any position on the subject. The patent was amended by a Reexamination Certificate (B1 5,121,430) issued on or about September 1, 1998. According to FCC staff, the Commission, in adopting the formula for the EAS regulations, believed that the National Weather Service, part of the Commerce Department, held a patent which preceded the Quad Dimension patent, and which was the only valid patent on the EAS design. It is not clear, however, what the effect is of the reexamination certificate on the validity of the Quad Dimension patent; what the status is of the NWS patent; or the extent of the entitlement of Quad Dimension to require patent licenses for use of a system required by the Commission."

Harris Corporation, distributors of the Sage EAS system, have an open letter posted on their web site regarding the issue. Like SBE, they haven't yet researched the validity of the patent.

In the meantime, keep your browser pointed here for more information. E-mail us if you get a copy of the Quad Dimension letter.

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©1998 Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 36 San Diego. All rights reserved. For more information, to become a member or a sponsor, or to make suggestions or comments, e-mail sbe36@broadcast.net. Write to P.O. Box 710702, San Diego, California 92171-0702.  

Edited by Gary Stigall. Updated Jan 29 99.