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 (1914)

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:
1914
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 6
Leaf #:
000304
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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3310 Petitioner's Exhibit No. 54. Petitioner's Exhibit No. 54. THE POSITION OF THE AMERICAN MUTOSCOPE AND BIOGRAPH COMPANY. "WE were urged to join the Edison-Pathe combination, but we refused. The Court of Appeals has twice repudiated the claims of Edison that he is the creator of the moving picture art, and has limited his patent to his own particular form of apparatus. The same court has also decided that our apparatus does not infringe the Edison patent. We stand absolutely independent and protected by our own patents. We have largely increased our capacity and are prepared to regularly supply our own films and the films of the best foreign manufacturers in any quantity. We will, at our own expense, protect our customers from any form of patent persecution in connection with film supplied by us. Edison cannot obtain an injunction against any renter or exhibitor for the reason that his film patent has not been adjudicated and a decision cannot be obtained in less than two years." H. N. Marvin, J. J. Kennedy." Petitioner's Exhibit No. 55. BIOGRAPH COMPANY DEFINE THEIR POSITION. In the year 181)8 an action for infringement was brought against the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which had been for about three years in the business of manufacturing moving picture films, by Thomas A. Edison, under a patent to Hie latter, No. 589168, dated August 21, 1907. This patent contained four claims for a camera for taking pictures of objects in motion and two claims for a moving picture film. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided this suit in favor of the defendant, the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, on all points, finding Edison's