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 #:
00099
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. Marvin, Direct Examination. 1325 than approximately one and one-eighth (1%) inch, and also such machines not capable of exhibiting or projecting motion pictures on film of a greater width than approximately one and one-eighth (1%) inch, as will be able to supply the demand for the same. The Licensor further covenants and agrees that it will not charge any such person, firm or corporation manufacturing and selling any such machine capable of exhibiting or projecting motion pictures on a film of a width greater than approximately one and one-eighth (1%) inch, more than Five Dollars ($5.00), as a license fee for the sale of each such exhibiting or projecting machine sold by any such person, firm or corporation. The Licensor further covenants and agrees that it will grant a license to the Licensee, upon his request, to manufacture and sell exhibiting or projecting machines under the Letters Patent referred to, and upon the condition as to the payment of the license fees or royalties and other conditions and restrictions, and will not grant licenses thereunder to others on any more favorable terms or conditions, except the Biograph Company aforesaid, which is not to pay any such license fees or royalties; and will also grant a license to the Licensee to make and sell exhibiting or projecting machines under any other Letters Patent and containing the inventions described and claimed therein that the Licensor may hereafter acquire or control, upon the payment of additional license fees or royalties to be fixed by the Licensor, and subject to similar conditions and restrictions and the placing upon the machines of plates containing such conditions and restrictions as are fixed by the Licensor, and that it will not grant such licenses to others on any more favorable terms or conditions. The Licensor further covenants and agrees that it will, on request of the Licensee, enter into an agreement with the Licensee giving the Licensee the right to sublet motion pictures (from as many distributing points as the Licensee may desire) for use on 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, 741,251, 770,937, 771,280, 785,205 and 785,237, on terms and conditions to be prescribed by the Licensor, which terms and conditions shall be at least as