MTH announces HO electronics

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I thought you might find this interesting.

[url][http://www.mth-railking.com/newsdetail.asp?artid=169/url]

Al

2

Has the lawsuit that put a damper on DCC Sound been settled yet?

3

They have a lot of nerve to threaten to sue BLI and QSI, and sending letters to all of the DCC manufacturers saying MTH has pantents on so and so, then release an HO line of electronics.

4

There aren’t any lawsuits over DCC, MTH sent letters “informing” DCC makers about their patents, as a shot across their bow. The DCCguys are figuring how to either work around them or fight.

MTH and QSi are suing each other, but it’s related to O gauge.

5

Alt117,

While MTH deals primarily in larger scales; HO has been affected.

The lawsuit affected several DCC manufacturers. Soundtraxx was hard hit. The highly anticipated Soundtraxx decoder; Tsunami, which was originally supposed to be released in Dec 2003 was delayed as a result of the suit. Word now is that it’s scheduled for release Summer 2004.

Soundtraxx as well as the other manufacturers have had to spent valueable time researching and in some cases consulting professionals as far as the legal impact on their businesses. That’s time and money lost by these manufacturers that could have been spent on improving product lines. This, in turn, means that we lose too.

You’re right in that it was a shot across the bow, but an unnecessary one. It did help succeed in delaying advancements of DCC/Sound as well as alienate potential MTH customers. I posted an MTH Lawsuit topic back in February. Lots of responses, overwhelmingly not favorable regarding MTH.

6

The best course of action would be for all HO scalers to NOT purchase MTH’s new products.

7

[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]

8

Antonio, I agree with everything you said. MTH’s actions were harmful to the hobby.

My only point was they never sued anyone, they just let it be known that they could sue, which was enough to cause the other companies to change thier plans. Just the threat was enough to do damage to their future HO competitiors.

If they thought their system was better, they should have tried to compete in the market place, rather than bringing in the lawyers.

Al