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 #:
00092
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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2542 Petitioner's Exhibit No. 258. Notice to the Trade. To Exhibitors of and Dealers in Moving Picture Films : — The Edison Manufacturing Company, as now generally well known, is the owner of United States Letters Patent Reissue No. 12,192, granted to Thomas A. Edison January 12, 1901. This patent covers the manufacture, sale and use of all practical moving picture films. It is the intention of the company to protect its rights under this patent in every possible manner, and to that end it has instituted suits against all makers and users of unlicensed films wherever it has received information as to any infringement of the patent. One of these suits, that of Edison Manufacturing Company v. Christ Rolandson, in which the bill of complaint Avas filed March 16, 1908, has been determined favorably to the Edison Manufacturing Company, the complainant in the suit, and a decree has just been entered in the Circuit Court of Illinois, Eastern Division. Court Issues Decree. After reciting that the defendant had been properly served with process, and had caused his appearance to be entered, the decree reads : First — That all the material allegations of the said bill of complaint are true. Second — That the Reissue Letters Patent of the United States, No. 12,192, dated the 12th day of January, 1901, are good and valid Letters Patent; that the complainant is the owner of the same and of all rights of action for profits and damages arising out of the infringement thereof; that the defendant herein prior to the filing of the bill and within the period of six years last past, and since the 12th day of January, 1904, infringed upon the said Letters Patent and upon the rights of the complainant thereunder by using, within this District, moving picture films containing and embodying the inventions covered by the said Reissued Letters Patent, without the license or authority of the owners thereof, and to the damage of the complainant. Defendants arc Enjoined. It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed, and the