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 #:
000659
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. 135, Agt. Edison & Eastman Kodak Cos. 633 4. NOW, the parties hereto of the first and third parts, for valuable and sufficient considerations each to the other moving, do hereby mutually covenant and agree to, and do hereby (with the consent and approval of the party of the second part) modify said agreement in writing dated on or about the first day of January, 1909, as follows: By striking out the entire paragraph numbered 14 of said agreement in writing and substituting therefor the following as paragraph 14: "14. The Eastman Company covenants and agrees that during the continuance of this agreement it will fill all orders for the "Licensed Film" aforesaid (having a nitrocellulose base), received by it from any of the "Patents Company licensees" of an average quality equal to the average quality of such film heretofore supplied by it to its customers, 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; on condition, however, that if the total amount of sensitized motion picture film suitable for the commercial production of negative and positive motion pictures required by its several customers in the United States and in countries foreign thereto should at any time during the continuance of this agreement, exceed its output of such film, then and in such case each "Patents Company licensee" shall be entitled only to the same proportion of its output of such film that such licensee had of its total output of such film the previous calendar year; and that it 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 : Provided, however, that the party of the first part shall not be responsible for damages for any failure to fill all orders of any "Patents Company licensee' for such film in quantities other than such "Patents Company licensee's" proportion of the Eastman Company's output of the same, as defined in this paragraph, or for any failure to fill such orders in quantities required by any such "Patents Company licensee" by circumstances or happenings beyond the control of the Eastman Company. The Eastman Company further covenants and agrees that it will not, after the date