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 000436 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 #:
000436
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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414 Agreement, Patents & Gaumont Cos. directly to exhibitors for the purpose of giving exhibitions thereof. The Licensee further covenants and agrees that no lease of positive "talking motion pictures" shall be made by it to any lessee for the purpose of sub-leasing, except upon and subject to the following terms and conditions, the substance of which (with the exception of the condition as to the return of positive "talking motion pictures") hereinafter referred to, shall be expressed in a printed notice on the labels as provided for in Paragraph 7, accompanying each positive "talking motion picture," namely; (1) that such "talking motion picture" shall at all times be used in connection with the sound record furnished by the Licensee with the said picture and only on synchronized motion picture exhibiting and sound reproducing apparatus, the synchronizing devices of which have been made or imported by the Licensee and the motion picture projecting machines of which are licensed by the Licensor under the said Letters Patent Nos. 578,185; 580,749; 586,953; 588,916; 673,329; 673,992; 707,934; 722,382 ; 744,251 ; 770,937 ; 771,280 ; 785,205 and 785,237, or one or more of them under any other letters patent that It may hereafter acquire or control; and (2) that the lessee shall not make or permit others to make any reproduction, commonly known as a "dupe" of such positive talking motion picture or any other positive motion picture containing the invention of said reissued Letters Patent No. 12,192; and (3) that the lessee shall not sub-lease the same or any other positive motion picture on film of a greater width than approximately one inch (1"), containing the inventions of said reissued Letters Patent No. 12,192, for use in giving motion picture exhibitions until such lessee has entered into an agreement in writing with the Licensor containing terms and conditions to be prescribed therein by it, and only while such lessee complies with all such terms and conditions and while such agreement remains in force and effect; and (4) that the lessee of such positive "talking motion picture" shall not remove the trademark or tradename or title there from, and (5) that the lessee shall return to the Licensee (without any payment therefor, except the transportation charges incident to the return of the same) on the first of every month, beginning with September 1, 1909, an amount of positive "talking motion pictures" (not leased by the Licensee over twelve months before) and of the make of the