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)

Page scan 000426 from 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 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 #:
000426
Language:
English
Collection:
Government & Law and Early Cinema
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 12, 2024
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404 Agreement, Patents & Gaumont Cos. The Licensee further covenants and agrees to permit the Licensor, if it should so desire, to examine its books through any reputable chartered accountants, to be agreed upon by the Licensor and Licensee, to determine the number of running feet of "talking motion pictures'' imported by the Licensee under this agreement. The Licensor further covenants and agrees that at the end of each year beginning with June 20th, 1910, it will, if the Licensee so directs, make up the account of the royalties paid to it by the Licensee during the preceding year and will return to the Licensee any royalties which the Licensee may have overpaid, according to the schedule of royalties provided for in Paragraph 4 hereof, by reason of its total importations of "talking motion pictures" added to its purchases of "Licensed Film" for that year, having exceeded four million (4,000,000) running feet, and in order that the Licensor may ascertain the royalty rate to be charged to the Licensee, the Licensee shall instruct the manufacturer or manufacturers of licensed film to communicate to the Licensor the amount of such "Licensed Film'' on which the Licensee shall have paid royalty during that year. 4. The Licensee covenants and agrees that in the manufacture of "talking motion pictures" both negative and positive in the "territory aforesaid," during the continuance of this agreement, the Licensee will use exclusively sensitized film manufactured and sold in the United States by a manu facturer or manufacturers authorized by the Licensor, such sensitized film herein called "Licensed Film," and that the Licensee will not, in the "territory aforesaid", purchase or otherwise acquire or lease or sell or otherwise dispose of or deal in, motion pictures produced on or by the use of any other film than such "Licensed Film" nor sell or otherwise dispose of any negative motion pictures. The Licensor further covenants and agrees that it will, in an agreement in writing with each manufacturer of "Licensed Film," obligate such manufacturer, so long as the latter has the exclusive right to make and sell such "Licensed Film", not to knowingly furnish or sell, in the "territory aforesaid,'' except "for export," sensitized film for the commercial production of negative and positive motion pictures to any one but the Licensee, and the additional licensees hereinafter provided for, except to the extent of two and one-half (2%) per cent of the total amount of such "Li