Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-08-16
Action Has Been Filed Today
To Set Aside Picture Pat.
eOts Company
Trusts Companies Alleged to
Have Overstepped Law.
fuI Monopoly
Considered One Of the Im.
DOrtant Moves Yet Made
Under Sherman Act
BY Associated Press-

BY Associated Presa-
PHILADELPHIA, Aug 16.-The
federal government has attacked the
so called moving picture trust" in a
civil suit filed mere today for the dis
solution OF the Moving Picture Pat
ents Company and the General Film
Company. Ten prominent film con.
Germs are accused of combining to
monopolize the business, even to the
extent of increasing or decreasing the
number of motion picture theaters,
in which they have no property inter.
est.
Each of the defendants is alleged
to have overstepped the bounds of
lawful monopoly granted by their pat
ents, and the petition asks that sew
eral complicated interlocking license
restrictions tying the patent compan-
les together be ordered cancelled.
The government charges that un-
reasonable and oppressive restraints
and conditions have been arbitrarily
imposed on the manufacture and
leasing of films and machines, depriv-
ing the public Of the advantage Of
competition, especially the competi.
tion of foreign films, importation OF
which is alleged to be restricted. Ed
win p. Grosvenor, special assistant
to the attorney general who has had
charge ofvthe pending antitrust suit
against the International Harvester
Company who made an exhaustive in.
vestigation of the moving picture
business, drew the petition filed today
by the United States Attorney John
G. Swartley. In addition the bill Is
signed by Attorney General Wicker
sham and James A. Fowler, his as.
sistant. The government petition
says that between 100000 and 3,0OO,-
900 feet of pictures printed each week
by manufacturers and distributed to
thousands of exhibitors all over the
United States.
The Motion Picture Patent Com
pany, organized in New Jersey Sep
tember 1908, is the holding company
of all motion picture patents of the
defendants. Other tnan collecting
and distributing the royalties among
the defendants, the bill says the pat
ent company's only business is the
bringing of lawsuits under the pat
ents it holds.
Hundreds of suits nave been
brought, it is alleged, ito harrass and
oppress all persons engaged in the
motion picture business who have not
obeyed it's mandates. The govern
ment declares that sum greatly in
excess of 100000 has been invested
in the different branches of the bust.
ness. The defendants control, it ls
added, from seventy to eighty per
cent of the film business, furnishing
approximately seven thousand exhib.
itors. t..
Considered important Case.
WASHINGTON, August .16.-The'
moving picture antitrust suit filed
today is regarded by tsle department.
of justice as one of it's most import
ant moves under the Sherman law, as
it squarely asks for juuIcial de.
termination of the relation of that
statute to the patent laws. The suit
will test the right of corporations
and individuals to join their respect
i've patent monopolys into one big
monopoly through alleged combina.
tions and agreements.
These issues, this declared, are
brought out more forcibly in today's
suit than any pending antitrust liti.
cation.