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 (1912-1913)

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:
1912-1913
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 7
Leaf #:
000285
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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Motion Pictuke Patents Co. and Eastman Kodak Co. 267 be charged to the "Patents Company licensees" (except to the Edison Company); it being further covenanted and agreed, however, that the Eastman Company may reduce these prices of three (3) and three and one-quarter (3] } i cents, respectively, if ii should consider it commercially desirable to do so, but in ao case shall it reduce the aforesaid royalties to be charged to and collected by it from the "Patents Company licensees" for the Patents Company, without the consent of the latter. 17. It is further mutually covenanted and agreed by and between the Patents Company and the Eastman Company that the royalties referred to in Paragraph 6 of this agreemenl shall not be charged by the Eastman Company to the Edison Company, but that the maximum prices to be charged by the Mast man Company to said Edison Company shall be i unless reduced as provided for in Paragraph 18, when the Edison Company shall have the benefit of such reduced price) three (3) cents net per running foot for nonperforated "Licensed Film" (having a nitrocellulose base) approximately one inch and three-eights of an inch i L% in. i in width. and three and one-quarter (3% I cents net per running foot for perforated "Licensed Film" ( having a nitrocellulose hase i approximately one inch and three-eighths of an inch (1% in.) in width, which prices shall be reduced or increased in proportion to the reduction or increase in width of narrower or wider "Licensed Film" than that approximately one inch and three-eighths of an inch (1% in.) in width. IS. It is further mutually covenanted and agreed by and between the Patents Company and the Eastman Company, that on eaeh sale of "Licensed Film" to the "Patents Company licensees" (with the exception of the Edison Company >, the Eastman Company shall, in the first instance, that is to say. when such "Licensed Film" approximately one inch and three-eighths of an inch ( 1% in.) in width. is billed and shipped by it. charge the licensees with its price of three (3) cents or three and one-quarter (31 j i cents, as the case may be, per running foot, plus the maximum royalty of five (5) mills per running foot, referred to in Paragraph 6 of this agreement, and on the expiration of each year, counting from June 20. 1909, shall adjust the royalty account of each licensee as to "Licensed Film" so hilled and shipped to them and paid for by them, according to the royalty schedule set forth in said Paragraph 6, returning to the licensee anv