Motion Picture Patents Company

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.