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 000593 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 #:
000593
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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Gov't Ex. 133, Agt. Edison & Eastman Kodak Cos. 507 powers the Eastman Company to charge to and collect from each of the "Patents Company licensees'' to whom the Eastman Company supplies such "Licensed Film," and pay over to it (said Patents Company), in the manner hereinafter provided for, the royalties referred to in Paragraph G of this agreement. 13. The Patents Company, for itself, its successors, assigns and legal representatives, hereby releases, acquits and discharges the Eastman Company from any and all claims, demands and liability for profits and damages because of any infringement by the Eastman Company of said letters patent Nos. 629,003 and 707,934, or either of them, or the use of the inventions covered thereby prior to the date hereof. 14. The Eastman Company covenants and agrees that during the continuance of this agreement it will fill all orders for the "Licensed Film" aforesaid received by it from the "Patents Company licensees'' with reasonable diligence and at the prices hereinafter provided for, if it is satisfied that they are and will be able to pay for the same, and will manufacture all such "Licensed Film" (having a nitrocellulose base), by its present secret processes and will embody therein its present secret compositions and patented invention, and that it will not, after the date hereof, and during the continuance of this agreement knowingly furnish or sell, in the "territory aforesaid,'' except for export, as hereinafter provided for, such sensitized film for the commercial production of negative and positive motion pictures to anyone but the "Patents Company licensees," except to the extent of two and onehalf (2%) percent of the total amount of such "Licensed Film" supplied to the parties to the license agreements referred to in Paragraph 3 and prior to the date hereof and to the "Patents Company licensees" from the date hereof to June 20, 1909, and to said "Patents Company licensees" during any one year, counting from June 20, 1909, of the continuance of this agreement, which amount, of a width approximately one inch and three-eighths of an inch (1% in.) the Eastman Company lias furnished prior to the date hereof by and with the authority of the Edison Company, and from the date hereof the Eastman Company