Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Laemmle

214 F. 787, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1843
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 4, 1914
DocketNos. 9-82, 9-83
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 214 F. 787 (Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Laemmle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Laemmle, 214 F. 787, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1843 (S.D.N.Y. 1914).

Opinion

MAYER, District Judge.

The suits are brought to restrain infringement of letters patent reissue No. 13,329 for-kinetoscopes or motion picture cameras, granted December 5, 1911.

The patent is a reissue of reissue No. 12,037 dated September 30,. 1902, which itself was a reissue of original patent No. 589,168 dated August 31, 1897.

The defenses are: (1) Invalidity; (2) noninfringement; and (3) unreasonable delay so as to render the reissue void. At the outset, an outline of the history of the litigation is desirable.

The original patent was passed upon by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Edison v. American Mutoscope Com[789]*789pany, 114 Fed. 926, 52 C. C. A. 546. Of the four claims, three were in issue and were held invalid as too broad. In view of this decision in (as it is called) the “First Mutoscope Case,” the patent was reissued. The three claims were limited to conform with the decision, and the fourth was repeated in the reissue without change.

This first reissue (No. 12,037) also came before'the Circuit Court of Appeals for this circuit in Edison v. American Mutoscope & Bio-graph Company (the “Second Mutoscope Case”) 151 Fed. 767, 81 C. C. A. 391. Claims 1, 2, and 3 were held valid while claim 4, then put in issue for the first time, was held invalid because it was functional. Two cameras of the defendant in that suit were involved— the Biograph and the Warwick. The court found infringement as to claims 1, 2, and 3 as to the Warwick, but not as to the Biograph. The usual interlocutory decree followed (March 25, 1907), but before the controversy went to final decree the parties settled their differences.

At the time the Second Mutoscope Case was commenced, suits based on reissue No. 12,037 were pending against: (1) Selig Poly-scope Company in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division; (2) Sigmund Eubin in the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; and (3) American Vitagraph Company et al. in this district. After the decision in the second Mutoscope Case complainant moved for a preliminary injunction against the Selig Company. The motion was contested and decided favorably to complainant by Judge Kohlsaat on October 24, 1907.

A second suit was brought against American Vitagraph Company et al. on June 10, 1907, but proceedings were suspended in view of negotiations for a license. In April, 1907, suit was commenced against Miles Brothers, but was not contested.

In the fall of 1907, in addition to the Edison Company and the Mutoscope Company, the only manufacturers of motion pictures in the United States were the Vitagraph Company, Lubin, Selig Company, Pathe Fréres, Kalem Company, and Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. By January, 1908, all of these mansifacturers were operating under licenses acquiescing in the validity of reissue No. 12,037. The Mutoscope Company had discontinued using the Warwick and was using the Biograph, which the court had held did not infringe, but later on even the Mutoscope Company obtained a license under the Edison patent. In the summer of 1908, the complainant company was organized, and it purchased, among other things, the reissue No. 12,037, and in December, 1908, granted licenses to the Edison and Mutoscope Companies and to all of the manufacturers above mentioned to whom Edison had granted licenses in January, 1908. Until the summer of 1909, the complainant and its licensees conducted business without (except in one minor instance) encountering infringement. By this time, the remarkable possibilities of the business apparently attracted many, and the task of pursuing alleged infringers became necessary and difficult. To prove infringement it [790]*790was requisite, of course, to show clearly the detail of the interior mechanism of the alleged infringing cameras; and, as the infringing business consisted, not in the sale, but in the use, of cameras, it was essential that the interior mechanism should be examined either just before of just after a camera had been used in talcing a motion picture. Motion pictures are taken in studios and also out of doors. Great care was taken by alleged infringers to prevent access to studios by strangers, and in outdoor work, bystanders were kept at a distance, and in brief the most thorough precautions were exercised to prevent inspection or discovery of the interior mechanism. The record amply sustains the assertions of complainant as to its tribulations in obtaining the necessary proof upon which to-proceed in the courts, and then in following up the fly-by-night disappearances of some of the alleged infringers.1

Between July, 1907, and May, 1911, about 30 suits were brought, in many of which motions for preliminary injunctions were granted.

On December 11, 1909, a suit was brought in this court against the Independent Moving Pictures Company of America, one of the defendant corporations in the case at bar, and Carl Laemmle, the individual defendant herein. A motion for preliminary injunction arising out of the use by the company of a Warwick type camera was argued before Judge Noyes. The principal defense consisted of the contention that the complainant did not have the title to the patent because, as was alleged, it acquired the patent in pursuance of a contract in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. Judge Noyes overruled this defense and granted the injunction against the company. Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Carl Laemmle et al. (C. C.) 178 Fed. 104. Subsequently a motion to punish -the Independent Moving Pictures Company of America and two of its officers for contempt, arising out of a violation of the injunction because of continued use of the Warwick type of camera against which the injunction had been issued, was argued before Judge Lacombe, and he found the company guilty of contempt. 186 Fed. 641. Motions for preliminary injunction under reissue No. 12,037 were brought in November, 1910, against. William Steiner and others, trading under the name of Atlas Film Company, and against a corporation conducted by the same individuals and known as the Yankee Film Company. Before these motions were argued the defendants interposed demurrers, on or about November 25, 1910, to the bill on various grounds. One ground was that reissue No. 12,037 was void under section 4922 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3396) for unreasonable neglect and delay on the part of complainant to file a disclaimer of the fourth claim of that patent, -which had been held void as functional by the-Court of Appeals in the Second Mutoscope Case. This was the first time that this defense had been urged, and Judge Lacombe decided adversely to defendants and overruled the demurrers. The motions for preliminary injunction were thereupon argued, and Judge Lacombe [791]*791granted injunctions against the defendants, referring, in his opinion, to the fact that the disclaimer defense (also presented in opposition to the motions) had already been disposed of on demurrer. The orders for preliminary injunction were thereupon made, but contained a provision excepting from the terms thereof a certain camera which had been exhibited to" the court.

It is stated that slight consideration was given by the then complainant’s counsel to the disclaimer defense, in view more especially of Judge Lacombe’s' disposition of the question on demurrer; but, on the argument on review, Judge Noyes, it is said, indicated that complainant’s counsel had not treated the disclaimer defense as seriously as it deserved.

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Bluebook (online)
214 F. 787, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/motion-picture-patents-co-v-laemmle-nysd-1914.