[old_tv_nut]

For companies that developed lots of patents, a patent suit negotiation often went by both parties bringing their stacks of patents, and then "I'll drop one if you'll drop one" - and onward until the company with the fewest had none to trade - and RCA always had the biggest stack.

The other aspect of RCA vs. everyone else in color TV was years of court battles until RCA was forced to unbundle their patents. Before that happened, it didn't matter if you had technology that evaded RCA's patents, because they would only license them as a bundle. So, this was another reason (besides the slow public uptake) that many companies stayed out of color until the early-mid 60s. Some companies (like Zenith) were then able to be more selective in the licenses they took.