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 #:
000348
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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326 Motion Picture Patents Co. and Gaumont Co. of X. Y. machines embodying one or more of the inventions described and claimed in said United States Letters Patent Nos. 578,185, 580,749, 586,953, 588*916, 673,329, 673,992, 707,931, 722,382, 711,251, 770,937, 771,280, 785,205, and 785,237, to which is attached sound record synchronizing devices of the Licensee's manufacture or importation, it will not discriminate in any manner against any theatre using such devices, and that such weekly royalty for any such theatre shall in no case be greater than the royalties charged to theatres of a corresponding size and location not using such synchronizing devices. 5. The Licensee further covenants and agrees not to sell or otherwise dispose of or offer for sale, in the ''territory aforesaid," unexposed positive or negative "Licensed Film" during the continuance of this agreement, but this provision shall not prevent the Licensee from selling as refuse, in the "territory aforesaid," secondhand positive or negative motion pictures or motion pictures which have been used or become shop-worn or in any way damaged, to a manufacturer or manufacturers of "Licensed Film" or to a manufacturer to manufacture other articles than film therefrom, but only after they have been rendered by the Licensee unsuitable for use as motion pictures by cutting or otherwise defacing them; or from selling exposed positive or negative him (either waste or in rolls) known as "blank film" for use by dealers, renters or exhibitors for leaders or for spacing or for similar purposes, but which shall not and cannot be otherwise employed for the exhibition of motion pictures. 6. The Licensee further covenants and agrees not to lease, rent out, sell or offer for sale, or otherwise, dispose of in the "territory aforesaid," motion pictures to anyone purchasing or otherwise obtaining, leasing, using, loaning, renting out, selling, offering for sale, or otherwise1 disposing of or dealing in, motion pictures containing the inventions of said reissued Letters Patent No. 12,192, not the out] nil of the Licensee or of the additional licensees of the Licensor under the said reissued Letters Patent No. 12,192. (7) The Licensee further covenants and agrees to mark each and every camera which the Licensee may make or use under this agreemenl embodying the inventions of reissued Letters Patent No. 12,037, Letters Patent Nos. 629,063 and 707,931, or either of them, with the word "Patented" followed by the dates of grant of all of the said Letters Latent, the inventions claimed in which are embodied in the said camera or apparatus, and to photographically