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 000603 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 #:
000603
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. 577 The Patents Company further covenants and agrees, however, that it will grant licenses to such a number of persons, firms and corporations to manufacture and sell exhibiting or projecting machines containing the inventions described and claimed in the aforesaid letters patent now oAvned by the Patents Company, 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, as will be able to supply the demand for the same, upon the payment of a royalty or license fee not to exceed Three (3) percent of the net retail selling price of each such machine, and that it will impose no other condition or restriction upon the manufacture and sale of any such machines than that they be used solely in places where no admission fee is charged, which condition shall appear on a plate to be attached to each such machine ; and also that it will grant licenses to such persons, firms and corporations to manufacture and sell all such exhibiting or projecting machines referred to in this Paragraph 23, containing the inventions described and claimed in any letters patent that the Patents Company may hereafter own or control, subject to similar conditions or restrictions and upon the payment of additional license fees or royalties to be fixed by the Patents Company, the royalty or license fee, and all the conditions and restrictions of all the licenses referred to in this Paragraph 23, to be the same for all such licensees, except that such licenses may be granted to said American Mntoscope & Biograph Company and the said Arinat Motion Picture Company without payment of royalty or license fees for the manufacture or sale of any such exhibiting or projecting machines; and to said Vitagraph Company of America upon its paying only four-fifths (4/5ths) of the royalties or license fees provided for in this paragraph, on such machines, and to the Edison Company and said firm of Marvin and Casler, without paying any royaltics or license fees on such machines sold bona fide for export. The Patents Company further covenants and agrees that it will grant a license to the Eastman Company, upon its request, to manufacture and sell exhibiting or projecting machines containing the inventions described and claimed in the aforesaid letters patent now owned by the