[D0122AAE], Letter from Dyer Edmonds and Dyer, Samuel Owen Edmonds to Oscar T Taylor, Exhibition. Buffalo Pan-American (1901), June 15th, 1901
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D0122AAE
Transcription
June 15, 1901 Oscar T. Taylor, Esq., Sec'y Committee on Law and Insurance, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, N.Y. Dear Sir:- We have received yours of 13th instant relating to infringement of Edison patents on moving picture apparatus and films by Sigmund Lubin at the Pan-American Exposition. We regret the attitude which you have concluded to take, since under our client's instructions we shall have to proceed to enforce Mr. Edison's rights by suit, either against the Pan-American Exposition Company alone or against the concern jointly with Lubin. We further regret that you have given any weight to Lubin's assurance as to protecting you against judgment. Such assurances he has tendered to a number of other persons and concerns, possibly more fully apprised as to the situation than you are, and it has been refused. We do not at all, as you suggest, appreciate the fact that you would be sued or threatened with suit by rival manufacturers no matter what concern obtained the concession from you. The Edison patents, as you will readily find upon investigation, lie at the foundation of the moving picture art, and, in fact, it was through them that the art was first presented to the public. We know of no contention that Mr. Edison's apparatus infringes upon any patents or upon any rights of competing manufacturers or exhibitors. Nor do we know of any moving picture apparatus or films adapted for or capable of successful commercial use, which do not fall within the scope of those patents and infringed upon their claims. As you are doubtless aware, by granting the concession to Lubin and countenancing his violation of the Edison patents, the Pan-American Exposition Company contributes with him in the infringement of Mr. Edison's rights. This our client will not overlook, even in view of the "temporary nature of the corporation formed for the conduct of the Pan-American Exposition." We have no doubt however, that Mr. Edison regrets, as we do, the necessity for involving your Company in a controversy which it might so easily avoid Yours truly,