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 #:
000660
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Government & Law
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 21, 2023
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634 Gov't Ex. 135, Agt. Edison & Eastman Kodak Cos. 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 any one but the "Patents Company licensees,'' except to the extent of two and one-half (2y2) per cent, 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, January 1, 1909, and to the "Patents Company licensees" from January 1, 1909, 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 and three eighths of an inch (1% in.), the Eastman Company has furnished prior to the date hereof by and with the authority of the Edison Company, and from the date hereof the Eastman Company (by and with the consent and authority of the Patents Company, which it hereby grants) reserves the right to furnish or supply to persons not engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling, loaning, renting out, or otherwise disposing of or dealing in motion pictures in the "territory aforesaid," and upon which film, hereinafter referred to as "scientific film," the Eastman Company is to collect from the purchaser thereof and pay to the Patents Company a royalty of onehalf cent (Vo cent) per running foot on such film sold by it which is paid for by the purchaser thereof, as provided for in paragraph numbered 18 of this agreement; and with the further exception that the Eastman Company (by and with the consent and authority of the Patents Company, which it hereby grants) reserves the right to manufacture and sell such film to persons, firms and corporations now engaged, or who may hereafter be engaged, in the business of manufacturing, selling, loaning, renting out, or otherwise disposing of or dealing in motion pictures in the "territory aforesaid," who are not "Patents Company licensees," which persons, firms and corporations will be hereinafter referred to as "non-licensed manufacturers aforesaid"; and to others, i. e., persons, firms and corporations who sell such film unexposed to "non-licensed manufacturers aforesaid" in the "territory aforesaid"; but such film so sold to "nonlicensed manufacturers aforesaid" or to others who sell the