United States of America v. Motion Picture Patents Company and others (1914)

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59 tions had been argued at great length before District Judge Hollister by distinguished counsel. (See p. 293.) The question was whether or not evidence might be introduced by the defendants of the character and scope of the patents owned by the National Cash Register Company and whether or not the various competitors named in the indictment were infringers of those patents. The evidence was excluded. (Page 294:) The claim is made by counsel for the defendants that there can be no such thing as a free flow of commerce or trade in articles made in infringement of a patent, and this is on the ground that a patentee has a monopoly by virtue of the laws of the United States enacted in pursuance of constitutional authority. They say that a patentee, having a lawful monopoly by the operation of the patent laws, can not be charged with monopolizing under the Sherman Antitrust Act. In the course of a well-considered opinion, Judge Hollister said: (295:) Counsel have cited no case — if there had been one, they would have found it — and the assertion, usually of doubtful wisdom, may in this connection be safely made that no decision will be found sanctioning acts of violence by a patentee in the protection of his patent right, acts of violence against the claimed infringing article or the business of in