[kx250rider]

I'm trying to get to the bottom of a rumor (actually several) which I've heard over the past 20 years, on the subject of exactly what happened between RCA & Zenith when Zenith put out the prototype 43M20 color set.

The tube in the Zenith was basically an identical copy of one of the RCA prototype tubes with the screw heads showing in the mask. It's my understanding that Zenith got hold of that design, and had Rauland build it "slightly without proper licensing". Consequently, a suit was filed, and Zenith lost. The result supposedly was the long delay (til at least 1961) before Zenith came out with a color TV.

Rumor #2, is that Zenith had to swear to recall and destroy all of those 43M20 sets as of December of '53, but since I know of at least a couple of them existing today with the original screwhead tube, this didn't happen. One of them I know was stolen from the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel in Oakland, CA from where it was on public display. It is still in California.

Does anyone have any case info on this, or is it all a bunch of made-up hooey? I don't know much about legal case research, so maybe if there's a paralegal or lawyer among us, would it be possible to find the case? No idea of dates or actual names on it.

Charles