In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants (1913)

Record Details:

Title:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants
Date:
1913
Publisher:
New York, Appeal Printing Co.
Volume:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants : record volume 3
Leaf #:
00097
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Government & Law
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
These seven volumes contain the testimonies and supporting documents from the U.S. District Court's antitrust lawsuit against the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Formed in 1908, the MPPC (sometimes referred to asœ"the Edison Trust" or just "the Trust") sought to control the American film industry through pooling patents and demanding that producers and exhibitors acquire licenses to those patents. Independent producers and exhibitors, who refused to license the patents, argued that the MPPC was an unlawful monopoly. In 1912 and 1913, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania heard testimonies from both MPPC members, such as Siegmund Lubin, and "Independents" who later became Hollywood moguls, such as William Fox. Ultimately, in 1915, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which found the MPPC in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and spelled the end for the already weakening MPPC. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

H. N. Mabverf, Direct Examination. 1323 Letters Patent Nos. 578,185, 5S0,719, 586,958, 588,916, 073,329, 673,992, 707.934, 722,382, 744,251, 770,937, 771,280, 785,205 and 785,237, and not licensed by the Licensor. It is further mutually understood and agreed that the Licensee shall have the right to use, without payment of royalty therefor, motion picture projecting machines containing the inventions, or some of them, of said Letters Patent Nos. 578,185, 580,749, 586,953, 588,916, 673,329, 673.992, 707,934, 722.382, 744.251, 770.937, 771.280, 785,205 and 785,237 in testing, and in exhibiting to possible or prospective lessees or purchasers, positive motion pictures in connection with the Licensee's manufacture thereof, but not for the purpose of giving exhibitions thereof for profit. 27. It is mutually covenanted and agreed by and between the Licensor and Licensee that the Licensor may grant other licenses under said reissued Letters Patent Nos. 13,329 and 12,192, and said Letters Patent No. 629,063, said licenses to be in writing and not to exceed ten in number, and to be to the persons and corporations (or their successors in business) mentioned in Paragraph 2b as having license agreements with the Licensor and the Kinemaeolor Company of America (except by a majority vote of the Licensee and the nine other licensees, other than the said Kinemaeolor Company, or such of them as may at the time be licensees, on the basis of one vote for each thousand running feet of new subjects, on film of a greater width than approximately one and one-eighth (1%) inch, offered for lease or sale in the "territory aforesaid" by such licensees during the year preceding the taking of such vote), and not to be granted or continued upon terms, conditions or stipulations which are in any respect more favorable to the licensees named therein than those set forth in this agreement, (except to the Edison Company, and the latter shall only be more favorable to it in the matter of the payment of royalties to the Licensor), provided, however, (a) that if any of such additional nine licenses, other than that to said Kinemaeolor Company, should be terminated, during the continuance of this agreement, then and in each such case, the Licensor may grant a license in writing to some other motion picture manufacturer, but not on terms, conditions or stipulations which are more favorable as to such new license than