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 #:
000633
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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Gov t Ex. 134, Agt. Edison & Eastman Kodak Cos. (M)< ments mentioned in Paragraph 3, including the Edison Com 1 pany, (with the exception of said George Melies Company) and also the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, of New York, and George Kleine, of Chicago, Illinois, by agreements in writing to take effect January 1st, 1909, to manufacture and use in the United States, its territories and possessions (hereinafter referred to as the "territory aforesaid") cameras or apparatus embodying the inventions of said reissued letters patent No. 12,037 and letters patent Nos. 629,003 and 707,934, and to manufacture, print and produce positive motion pictures embodying the inventions of said reissued letters patent No. 12,192, and to lease the same in the United * states, its territories, dependencies and possessions (with the exception of its insular possessions and Alaska, therein referred to as the "lease territory") on film of a greater width than approximately one (1) inch, upon condition that they be used solely in exhibiting or projecting machines licensed by the Patents Company for the use of which a royalty or rent is paid by the user thereof while in use containing the inventions, or some of them, of said letters patent Nos. 578,185, 580,719, 586,953, 588,916, 673,329, 673,992, 707,931, 722,382, 741,251, 770,937, 771,280, 785,205, and 785,237, and to sell positive motion pictures containing the inventions of said reissued letters patent number 12,192, on film of a width approximately one (1) inch or less in said "lease territory," and on film of any width in and for said insular possessions and Alaska and foreign countries, all of which license agreements are upon substantially the same terms and conditions, except that the Edison Company is not to pay any royalties to the Patents Company, and except that George Kleine is prevented from manufacturing negative motion pictures in the "territory aforesaid'' and from manufacturing from imported negative motion pictures, posi a tive motion pictures, and importing in all more positive motion pictures than a certain number of thousand feet per week; and that the Patents Company may hereafter have other licensees (said licensees which it now has or may hereafter have being referred to hereinafter, for brevity, as the "Patents Company licensees") ; and that in case the Patents Company should become bankrupt, cease doing business or should be dissolved, voluntarily or otherwise, or its Charter should be repealed, then, on the happening of either of such events, the Patents Company is to forthwith assign to the