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 #:
000661
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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Gov't Ex. 135, Agt. Edison & Eastman Kodak Cos. 035 same to them shall not bo considered as licensed by the Patents Company for nse in the manufacture of motion pictures, nor shall any royalty be charged, collected or accounted therefor by the Eastman Company; that the Eastman Company shall, during the continuance of this agreement, from 1 he first day of June , 1911, give to the "Patents Company licensees" (who have made or who may make an agreement with it, the same in all substantial respects as the one hereto annexed marked ''Schedule A" and during the continuance of the same), a discount of five percent (5%) off the prices provided for in paragraph numbered 16 of this agreement (exclusive of the royalties referred to therein) which will be hereinafter termed "net prices"; and that it will not sell or knowingly permit others to sell such film of its manufacture to the "non-licensed manufacturers aforesaid" at less than the "net prices" to the ''Patents Company licensees" aforesaid, plus one-half (%) cent per running foot of such film; except to such "non-licensed manufacturers aforesaid" who had, prior to January 1st, 1909, an established place of business of manufacturing motion pictures in any country foreign to the United States ( hereinafter, for brevity, called "foreign manufacturers") who now manufacture negative or positive motion pictures in the United States, or who, after January 1st, 1909, commence the manufacture of negative or positive motion pictures in the United States, the prices to whom shall not be less than said "net prices," and without the addition thereto of one-half (%,) cent per running foot of such film; but the Eastman Company may reduce these "net prices" to the "Patents Company licensees," if it should consider it commercially desirable to do so, and. if it does so, it may make the same reduction to said "non-licensed manufacturers aforesaid." " 6. By striking out in paragraph numbered IS of said agreement, from lines 29 to 39, the following : "And on each sale of said other film which is not to exceed approximately one (1) inch in width, as provided for in paragraph 14, the Eastman Company shall include in the price charged for such film to the purchaser thereof a royalty amounting to such proportion of one-half (i/>) cent per running foot as the width of such film bears to the film ap