| United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
| Full case name | United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co. et al. |
| Decided | October 1, 1915 |
| Docket nos. | 889 |
| Citation | 225 F. 800 |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent actions | Appeal dismissed, Motion Picture Patents Co. v. United States, 247 U.S. 524 (1918). |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Oliver Booth Dickinson |
United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co., 225 F. 800 (E.D. Pa. 1915), was a civil antitrust prosecution overlapping to some extent with the issues in the decision in the Supreme Court's Motion Picture Patents case. After the trial court found that the defendants violated §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act by establishing control over "trade in films, cameras, projecting machines, and other accessories of the motion picture business," by their patent licensing practices and other conduct, they appealed to the Supreme Court. After the Supreme Court's 1917 decision in Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Manufacturing Co.,[1] however, the parties dismissed the appeal by stipulation (mutual agreement) in 1918 that the decision had made the defendants' appeal futile.[2]