ABS Warning Light License Dispute Settled

A 5-month-old impasse over licensing fees that threatened to shut down truck and trailer production appears resolved, with manufacturers coming to terms with the inventor of a critical piece of circuitry for an antilock brake failure warning light.

Equipment makers are signing agreements that allow use of electronic circuitry needed to activate an in-cab light in the event of a malfunction in a trailer’s antilock brake system. Without the agreements, a stockpile of computer chips containing the circuitry would have run out some time in April and production of most air-braked vehicles would have stopped, according to manufacturers (3-12, p. 2).

Licensing fees may add several dollars to the cost of each piece of ABS gear, which may or may not show up in the selling price of the vehicles, according to various sources. The agreed-on fee is $1.50 per vehicle, far less than the $5 per use that the inventor, Al Lesesky, and his company, Vehicle Enhancement Systems, had initially demanded.

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