The Motion Picture Patents Company, 1908–14

Abstract

Thomas Edison, as we know, had from the earliest days of the cinema aimed for exclusive control of the business. As the years passed and his lawsuits increased in number and expense, expansion of the industry was hindered both by the drain on capital and the want of a stable business environment. Eventually, by 1907, Edison managed to subdue the smaller companies; but litigation against his most powerful rival was proving inconclusive, not least because the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company had designed its own camera in a manner sufficiently different from Edison’s that, while it accepted compatible film stock, it escaped his patents.¹ Biograph was making sufficient profit from its film production to be able to afford to contest Edison’s lawsuits. As late as 1907 it continued to stand out against him, while most other companies had capitulated and come under his licence. In 1908 Edison changed tactics and proposed to Biograph a truce and the pooling of interests to their mutual profit. Biograph accepted, and in September the Motion Picture Patents Company was formed, embracing not only Biograph and Edison, but all those that had previously come into the Edison orbit.