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 (1914)

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:
1914
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 5
Leaf #:
00053
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
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Petitioner's Exhibit No. 263. 2503 many suits in the Spring of 1908, against Kleine's customers, in Chicago? A. I think it was. Q. I want you to please refresh your recollection by reading various articles in the Show World. I show you the Show World of March 7th, 1908, page 8, an article entitled "Opposing Moving Picture Interests Fire First Guns in Great War for Supremacy. Edison Claims Absolute Rights by Virtue of Camera Patent. Kleine Talks. Biograph Company Denies Validity of Patents" : A. I have read it. Q. Do you recall reading this article at the time it ap 2 peared in the Show World? A. I think I read that at the time. I usually read the trade papers. Mr. Grosvexor : I offer it in evidence. The article offered is received in evidence and marked by the Examiner "Petitioner's Exhibit No. 263," and is as follows: Petitioner's Exhibit No. 263. OPPOSING MOVING PICTURE INTERESTS FIRE 3 FIRST GUNS IN GREAT WAR FOR SUPREMACY ! Edison Claims Absolute Rights by Virtue of Camera Patents. The Edison Manufacturing Company, of Orange, N. J., through General Manager William E. Gilmore, last week issued the following important statement to exhibitors of moving pictures in the United States : Gentlemen : 4 A brief statement of the development of the motion picture art, and especially of its relation to the actual business conditions at present existing, and also an explanation of the effort recently made to better those conditions referred to in the public press, will be of interest to all exhibitors. The modern art of reproducing animate motion by photography was invented and to a large extent made commercially possible by Thomas A. Edison. Patents were