Finding Aid for the Motion Picture Patents Company Trial Records LSC.0151
Finding aid prepared by Courtney Dean, 2020.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2020 December 11.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Motion Picture Patents Company trial records
Creator:
Motion Picture Patents Company
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0151
Physical Description:
2.0 Linear Feet
(4 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1911-1915
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Motion Picture Patents Company trial records (Collection 151). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Daniel V. Raymond, 1959.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233460
Administrative/Biographical History
Motion Picture Patents Company was organized in 1908 by a group of film producers and distributors representing Edison, Vitagraph,
Biograph, Kalem, Lubin, Selig, Essanay, Pathé Exchange, Méliès, and Gaumont companies to protect their patent interests;
a system of fees and royalties was set up for use of equipment covered by their patents; the General Film Company was established
(1910) to distribute films of its member companies to licensed theaters; certain independent producers, who were not owners
of patents or licensed by patent owners, challenged the validity of these practices; a complaint was filed to US Attorney
General G.W. Wickersham, who threatened a criminal indictment; through due course a decree was rendered for dissolution of
the Company.
Collection consists of briefs, court records, newspaper clippings, and related printed ephemera concerning the trial U.S.
vs. Motion Picture Patents Co. et al. from the files of the law firm Caldwell, Masslich & Reed, which represented the principal
defendants.
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Pleadings, license agreements
- Series 2: Drafts of answers
- Series 3: Memoranda of law
- Series 4: Memoranda, documents