In 1938, DuMont Labs began manufacturing televisions at a factory in nearby Passaic, New Jersey. To sell TVs, it began the DuMont Television Network in 1942, one of the earliest TV networks. Later, they manufactured cameras and transmitters for TV. DuMont equipment was known for its high quality. The main CRT factory was in Clifton, New Jersey. It made black and white TV tubes as well as instrumentation and military fire control tubes in the early 1950s. In 1956, DuMont Labs shuttered the network and spun off WABD & WTTG to "DuMont Broadcasting Corporation". Eventually, the company was renamed "Metropolitan Broadcasting Company" in order to distance itself from the DuMont branding, which was seen as a failure. In 1958, John Kluge bought Paramount's stake in the company, renaming it to Metromedia. DuMont's partner, Thomas T. Goldsmith, remained on Metromedia's board of directors until the stations were sold to the Fox Television Stations Group. Nearly every original DuMont television program is considered lost, and presumed destroyed. Only roughly 100 recordings of any DuMont series have been recovered. DuMont Labs eventually sold its TV manufacturing division to Emerson Radio in 1958, and sold the remainder of the company to Fairchild Camera in 1960. Fairchild later developed semiconductor microchips. Robert Noyce, founder of Intel, originally worked for DuMont Labs as an engineer. DuMont Labs TVs outside the US were assembled under license in Montreal, Quebec, Canada by Canadian Aviation Electronics, currently a manufacturer of flight simulator and pilot training equipment.
Name ownership
On April 18, 2012, a US federal trademark registration was filed for "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." by Alan Levin of Cabin John, Maryland. The description provided to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for it is "Antennas for radio, for television; Electrical and optical cables; Electronic and optical communications instruments and components". However, by June 5, 2020, the trademark registration for "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." by Mr. Levin had lapsed, with the status having changed to "CONTINUED USE NOT FILED WITHIN GRACE PERIOD, UN-REVIVABLE", resulting in the trademark no longer being active, with a search on the United StatesPatent and Trademark Office website for the "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." trademark confirming the trademark's status as "DEAD".
