The New York Clipper (April 1907)

April 13. THE NEW YORK CLIPPER. E DISON DECISIO N In the suit of Thomas A. Edison against the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals has sustained the Edison Patent and held that all apparatus in which the film is operated by a sprocket or similar movement like that of the WARWICK camera, which is used by the Biograph Company, infringes the Edison patent. The apparatus used for making Mutoscope slot machine pictures, which operates on a different principle, was held not to infringe the patent. EXTRACT FROM DECISION: "The meritorious feature of the device is that the/ seize hold of the film firmly, move it positively, regularly, evenly and very rapidly without jarring, jerking or slipping, producing a negative, which can be printed from and reproduced as a whole without re-arrangement to correct imperfect spacing of the successive pictures * * * In succession each sprocket enters a hole thereby holding the film firmly and positively and either advancing it forward or holding it at rest by a method of engagement, which eliminates all chances of slip." EDISON MANUFACTURING COMPANY BIOGRAPH CO. INJUNCTION United States of America, Circuit Court of the United States, for Southern District of New York, in Equity THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO AMERICAN MUTOSCOPE AND BIO- GRAPH COMPANY, its servants, agents, attorneys, officers, employees, workmen, and confederates, and each and every one of them, GREETING: WHEREAS, It hath lately been represented to us in our Circuit Court of the United States sitting as a Court of Equity on the part of THOMAS A. EDISON, the complainant, that he, the said complainant, has lately exhibited his bill of complaint against you, the said AMERICAN MUTOSCOPE & BIOGRAPH COMPANY, to be relieved touching the matters therein contained, in which bill it is, among other things, set forth, that Letters Patent were granted and issued by the United States to Thomas A. Edison for a new and useful inprovement in Kinetoscope, dated September 30/1902, and numbered 12037 of reissued Letters Patent. And that the title to said Letters Patent is vested in the complainant, Thomas A. Edison, and that you, THE SAID DEFENDANT, HAVE INFRINGED THE FIRST, 8ECOND AND THIRD CLAIMS of sa 'd Letters Patent and the exclusive rights of the complainant, thereunder, by using cameras in infringement of said claims of said Letters Patent, and that your actings and doings are contrary to equity and good conscience. We, therefore, in consideration of the premises and the same appearing to us to be true, do strictly and fully command and enjoin you, the said American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, the defendant, and your servants, agents, attorneys, officers, employees, workmen and confederates, and each and every of you, under the pains and penal- ties of disobedience, that you, and each and every of you, do henceforth altogether, absolutely and entirely, desist and refrain from directly or indirectly, making, constructing, using, vending, delivering, working or putting into operation or use, or in any wise counterfeiting or imitating the said invention, or ANY APPAPATUS FOR MAKING PHOTOGRAPHS OF MOVING OBJECTS MADE OR OPERATED IN ACCORD- ANCE WITH, OR LIKE, OR SIMILAR TO THE CAMERA IN EVIDENCE MARKED COMPLAINANT'SlEXHIBIT DEFENDANT'S WARWICK CAMERA. WITNESS the Honorable Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States, at the City of New York, in said district, this 27th day of March, 1907, in the year one thousand nine hundred and seven. [Seal.] JOHN A. SHIELDS, Clerk. WARNTMG1 All manufacturers of moving picture films are hereby warned against infringing the Edison patents. ;;>