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 1
Leaf #:
00040
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.

18 Agreement — Patents Co. and Vitagraph Co. projecting machines under any patents owned by it and covering such machines, unless such licensee shall also accept a license to manufacture and sell exhibiting and projecting machines under the said Vitagraph patents, whether or not such licensee may thereafter make use of any of the inventions covered by said Vitagraph patents. (3) The Patents Company covenants and agrees that on all motion picture exhibiting or projecting machines containing the inventions described in one or more of the said Vitagraph patents, manufactured or imported, and sold under the license of the Patents Company, it will charge royalties as follows: On each such machine capable of exhibiting or projecting by transmitted light, motion pictures, on film of width greater than approximately one inch (1")> a royalty of one dollar (11.00). On each such machine not capable of exhibiting or projecting by transmitted light, motion pictures on film of a width greater than approximately one inch (1"), a royalty of three-fifths (3/5) of one (1) per cent, of the net retail, selling price of such machines. On each such machine capable of exhibiting or projecting by reflected light, motion pictures on film of any width, but not capable of exhibiting or projecting the same by transmitted light, a royalty of three-fifths (3/5) of one (1) per cent, of the net retail selling price of such machines. It is understood and agreed by and between the Licensor and the Licensee that the expression "Motion Picture exhibiting or projecting machine," as used hereinbefore or hereinafter, includes motion picture mechanisms or "heads" for such exhibiting or projecting machines, but not any repair parts or portions of sucb motion picture mechanisms or "heads." The Patents Company further covenants and agrees that it will on June 20th, 1909, and at the end of each and every year thereafter, assign and pay over to the Vitagraph Company, all such royalties collected by the Patents Company under the provisions of this paragraph, during the period between February 1st, 1909, and June 20th, 1909, and during each year thereafter.