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 #:
000624
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:
May 23, 2024
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598 Gov't Ex. 134, Aot. Edison & Eastman Kodak Cos. it will not charge any such person, firm or corporation manufacturingand selling any such machine capable of exhibiting or projecting motion pictures on film of a greater width than approximately one (1) inch, more than Five (5) Dollars as a license fee for the manufacture and sale of each such exhibiting or projecting machine, and that it will impose no other conditions or restrictions upon the manufacture and sale of any such machines than that the sale and purchase thereof gives only the right to use them solely for exhibiting or projecting motion pictures containing the inventions of said reissued letters patent No. 12,192, leased by one of the "Patents Company licensees' ' and upon payment of a royalty or rental to the Patents Company while in use, to be fixed by it, and while the letters patent under which they are licensed are owned or controlled by the Patents Company, and that there shall be attached to each such machine a plate, in a conspicuous place, showing plainly, not only the date of the letters patent under which it is licensed, but also the aforesaid conditions and restrictions, and that such plate is not to be removed therefrom. The Patents Company further covenants and agrees that it will not charge any person, firm or corporation making or selling any such machine capable of exhibiting or projecting motion pictures on film not wider than approximately one (1) inch, a license fee of more than three (3) per cent, of the net retail selling price of each such machine, and will impose no other conditions or restrictions upon the manufacture and sale of any such machines than that they be used solely for exhibiting or projecting motion pictures on film not wider than approximately one (1) inch in places where no admission fee is charged, and that there shall be attached to each such machine a plate, in a conspicuous place, showing plainly, not only the dates of the letters patent under which it is licensed, but also the aforesaid conditions and restrictions, and that such plate is not to be removed therefrom. 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 owned by the Patents Company, capable of exhibiting or projecting, by reflected light, motion pictures on film of