RCA (trademark)

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RCA is a trademark owned by Thomson SA^[1] which is used on products made by that company as well as Audiovox and Sony BMG. RCA stood for Radio Corporation of America, a company which later became RCA Corporation which was taken over by General Electric in 1986 and then split up.

At present, the RCA trademark is used by two companies for products descended from RCA Corporation:

• Sony BMG Music Entertainment, (licensing the RCA name from Thomson) which owns the RCA Victor and RCA Records record labels it received from one of its owners, BMG.

• Thomson SA, through RCA Trademark Management S.A, licences the RCA name to other companies to use on products along six different product lines.
  • RCA Telephones - Manufactured by Thomson SA
  • RCA Audio/Video - Manufactured by Thomson SA(sale to Audiovox pending) Produces RCA DVD players, video cassette recorders, direct broadcast satellite decoders, camcorders, and audio equipment.
  • RCA Accessories - Manufactured by Audiovox, Produces Audio and video connectors, remote controls and television antennas.
  • RCA Televisions - Manufactured by TTE Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TCL Corporation
  • RCA Car Stereo - Also known as RCA Mobile
  • RCA Appliances - Produces RCA Microwaves

Thomson and BMG bought those assets from General Electric, which took over the RCA conglomerate in 1986 and kept RCA's NBC broadcast television interests (GE sold off the NBC Radio Network and the NBC-owned radio stations). Initially, GE continued to control the RCA trademarks (including the rights to the His Master's Voice trademark and the dog Nipper) which were then licensed to Thomson and Bertelsmann. Thomson eventually bought the RCA trademarks in 2003^[2] subject to the perpetual license GE had issued to Sony BMG's predecessor.

In 2002, Thomson and the Chinese company TCL formed a joint venture for the production and distribution of television sets and related consumer products.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2006, Thomson SA agreed to sell its consumer electronics accessory business, including rights to use the RCA name for consumer electronic accessories, to Audiovox^[3]

On October 16, 2007, Thomson SA agreed to sell its consumer electronics audio video business outside Europe including the worldwide rights to the RCA Brand for consumer electronics audio video products^[4]

Although Bertelsmann AG was new to the RCA family (though the creation of Sony BMG is similar to that of EMI more than 70 years earlier), Thomson started as the French subsidiary of Thomson-Houston Electric, a company which later evolved into General Electric.

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