Manners v. Morosco

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1920 United States Supreme Court case

Manners v. Morosco
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 2, 1920 Decided March 22, 1920
Full case name	Manners v. Morosco
Citations	252 U.S. 317 (more) 40 S. Ct. 335; 64 L. Ed. 590
Holding
1) The copyright transfer contract was not limited to five years because the agreement dealt in minimum requirements. 2) A transfer of the copyright for the production of a play on stage does not grant the ability to make a motion picture based on the play. However, a grant of exclusivity implies a negative guarantee that the original creator will not do anything that may adversely affect that exclusivity, meaning the author forfeited their own ability to authorize a motion picture production.
Court membership
Chief Justice Edward D. White Associate Justices Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr. William R. Day · Willis Van Devanter Mahlon Pitney · James C. McReynolds Louis Brandeis · John H. Clarke
Case opinions
Majority	Holmes, joined by White, McKenna, Day, Van Devanter, McReynolds, Brandeis
Dissent	Clarke, joined by Pitney

Manners v. Morosco, 252 U.S. 317 (1920), was a United States Supreme Court case with two principal holdings. First, the copyright transfer contract in question was not limited to five years because the agreement dealt in minimum requirements. Secondly, the transfer of the copyright for the production of a play on stage did not grant the ability to make a motion picture based on the play. However, a grant of exclusivity implies a negative guarantee that the original creator will not do anything that may adversely affect that exclusivity, meaning the author forfeited their own ability to authorize a motion picture production. The Court enjoined both parties from making a film version.^[1]

The case concerned Peg o' My Heart by J. Hartley Manners. A film version of the play was created in 1919 directed by William C. deMille and starring Wanda Hawley, but it was never released due to the legal issues raised by this case. Manners did produce a 1922 version starring his wife Laurette Taylor, and a 1933 version emerged later.

Justices John Hessin Clarke and Mahlon Pitney dissented because they saw nothing in the original or revised contract indicating that either party expected the agreement to last longer than five years.

References

^ Manners v. Morosco, 252 U.S. 317 (1923)

External links

Works related to Manners v. Morosco at Wikisource
Text of Manners v. Morosco, 252 U.S. 317 (1920) is available from: Cornell CourtListener Findlaw Justia Library of Congress

U.S. Supreme Court Article I case law

Enumeration Clause of Section II
Utah v. Evans (2002) Department of Commerce v. New York (2019) Trump v. New York (2020)

Qualifications Clauses of Sections II and III
Powell v. McCormack (1969) U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995) Cook v. Gralike (2001)

Elections Clause of Section IV
Ex parte Siebold (1879) Smiley v. Holm (1932) U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995) Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015) Moore v. Harper (2023)

Speech or Debate Clause of Section VI
Kilbourn v. Thompson (1881) United States v. Johnson (1966) Gravel v. United States (1972)

Origination Clause of Section VII
Flint v. Stone Tracy Co. (1911) United States v. Munoz-Flores (1990)

Presentment Clause of Section VII
Pocket Veto Case (1929) Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha (1983) Clinton v. City of New York (1998)

Taxing and Spending Clause of Section VIII
Hylton v. United States (1796) Collector v. Day (1871) Springer v. United States (1881) Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895) Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (1916) Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922) United States v. Butler (1936) Helvering v. Davis (1937) South Dakota v. Dole (1987) Sabri v. United States (2004) National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)

Taxing and Spending Clause of Section VIII

Hylton v. United States (1796)
Collector v. Day (1871)
Springer v. United States (1881)
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895)
Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (1916)
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922)
United States v. Butler (1936)
Helvering v. Davis (1937)
South Dakota v. Dole (1987)
Sabri v. United States (2004)
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)

Commerce Clause of Section VIII

Dormant Commerce Clause

Brown v. Maryland (1827)
Willson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co. (1829)
Cooley v. Board of Wardens (1852)
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Co. v. Illinois (1886)
Swift & Co. v. United States (1905)
George W. Bush & Sons Co. v. Malloy (1925)
Baldwin v. G.A.F. Seelig, Inc. (1935)
Edwards v. California (1941)
Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona (1945)
Dean Milk Co. v. City of Madison (1951)
Miller Bros. Co. v. Maryland (1954)
Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc. (1959)
National Bellas Hess v. Illinois (1967)
Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc. (1970)
Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp. (1976)
Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady (1977)
Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission (1977)
City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey (1978)
Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland (1978)
Reeves, Inc. v. Stake (1980)
Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways Corp. (1981)
Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas (1982)
White v. Mass. Council of Construction Employers (1983)
South-Central Timber Development, Inc. v. Wunnicke (1984)
Maine v. Taylor (1986)
Healy v. Beer Institute, Inc. (1989)
Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992)
Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt (1992)
Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Oregon (1994)
C&A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown (1994)
West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v. Healy (1994)
Granholm v. Heald (2005)
United Haulers Ass'n v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority (2007)
Department of Revenue of Kentucky v. Davis (2008)
Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne (2015)
South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (2018)
Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn. v. Thomas (2019)
National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (2023)

Others

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Passenger Cases (1849)
Paul v. Virginia (1869)
Cooper Manufacturing Co. v. Ferguson (1885)
Kidd v. Pearson (1888)
In re Debs (1895)
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895)
Champion v. Ames (1903)
Southern Railway Co. v. United States (1911)
Hoke v. United States (1913)
Houston East & West Texas Railway Co. v. United States (1914)
Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen (1923)
A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935)
Gold Clause Cases (1935)
Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan (1935)
Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (1936)
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937)
United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938)
McGoldrick v. Berwind-White Coal Mining Co. (1940)
United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (1941)
United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co. (1942)
Wickard v. Filburn (1942)
United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n (1944)
North American Co. v. SEC (1946)
H.P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond (1949)
Henderson v. United States (1950)
Canton Railroad Co. v. Rogan (1951)
Boynton v. Virginia (1960)
Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964)
Katzenbach v. McClung (1964)
Maryland v. Wirtz (1968)
National League of Cities v. Usery (1976)
Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Association, Inc. (1981)
Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana (1981)
EEOC v. Wyoming (1983)
Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985)
New York v. United States (1992)
United States v. Lopez (1995)
Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida (1996)
Reno v. Condon (2000)
United States v. Locke (2000)
Jones v. United States (2000)
United States v. Morrison (2000)
Gonzales v. Raich (2005)
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)
Taylor v. United States (2016)

Coinage Clause of Section VIII

Legal Tender Cases	Knox v. Lee (1871) Juilliard v. Greenman (1884)

Copyright Act of 1790	Wheaton v. Peters (1834) Paige v. Banks (1872) Globe Newspaper Co. v. Walker (1908)
Patent Act of 1793	Tyler v. Tuel (1810) Evans v. Eaton (1818) Evans v. Eaton (1822) Evans v. Hettich (1822)
Patent infringement case law	Evans v. Jordan (1815) Hollister v. Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co. (1885) Rowell v. Lindsay (1885) Schillinger v. United States (1894) Bauer & Cie. v. O'Donnell (1913) General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co. (1938)
Patentability case law	Pennock v. Dialogue (1829) Hotchkiss v. Greenwood (1851) O'Reilly v. Morse (1853) Cochrane v. Deener (1876) City of Elizabeth v. American Nicholson Pavement Co. (1878) Egbert v. Lippmann (1881) Consolidated Safety-Valve Co. v. Crosby Steam Gauge & Valve Co. (1885) Voss v. Fisher (1885)
Copyright Act of 1831	Wheaton v. Peters (1834) Backus v. Gould (1849) Stephens v. Cady (1853) Stevens v. Gladding (1854) Little v. Hall (1856) Paige v. Banks (1872) Baker v. Selden (1879) Callaghan v. Myers (1888) Higgins v. Keuffel (1891) Holmes v. Hurst (1899) Brady v. Daly (1899) Bolles v. Outing Co. (1899) Mifflin v. R. H. White Company (1903) Mifflin v. Dutton (1903)
Copyright Act of 1870	Perris v. Hexamer (1879) Trade-Mark Cases (1879) Merrell v. Tice (1881) Schreiber v. Sharpless (1884) Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony (1884) Thornton v. Schreiber (1888) Banks v. Manchester (1888) Callaghan v. Myers (1888) Thompson v. Hubbard (1889) Higgins v. Keuffel (1891) Belford v. Scribner (1892) Brady v. Daly (1899) Bolles v. Outing Co. (1899) Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co. (1903) McLoughlin v. Raphael Tuck & Sons Co. (1903) American Tobacco Co. v. Werckmeister (1907) Werckmeister v. American Tobacco Co. (1907) United Dictionary Co. v. G. & C. Merriam Co. (1907) White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. (1908) Dun v. Lumbermen's Credit Ass'n (1908) Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908) Scribner v. Straus (1908) Bong v. Campbell Art Co. (1909) Henry v. A.B. Dick Co. (1912)
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890	Straus v. American Publishers Association (1913) Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. United States (1939) Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941) United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948) Broadcast Music, Inc. v. CBS Inc. (1979)
International Copyright Act of 1891	Press Pub. Co. v. Monroe (1896) McLoughlin v. Raphael Tuck & Sons Co. (1903) American Tobacco Co. v. Werckmeister (1907) White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. (1908) Globe Newspaper Co. v. Walker (1908) Bong v. Campbell Art Co. (1909) Caliga v. Inter Ocean Newspaper Co. (1909) Hills and Co. v. Hoover (1911) Kalem Co. v. Harper Bros. (1911)
Copyright Act of 1909	Hills and Co. v. Hoover (1911) DeJonge and Co. v. Breuker & Kessler Co. (1914) Herbert v. Shanley Co. (1917) Manners v. Morosco (1920) Fox Film Corp. v. Knowles (1923) Buck v. Jewell-LaSalle Realty Co. (1931) Douglas v. Cunningham (1935) Washingtonian Pub. Co. v. Pearson (1939) Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. (1940) Fred Fisher Music Co. v. M. Witmark & Sons (1943) F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Contemporary Arts, Inc. (1952) Mazer v. Stein (1954) De Sylva v. Ballentine (1956) Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co. (1964) Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States (1973)
Patent misuse case law	Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Manufacturing Co. (1917) Morton Salt Co. v. G.S. Suppiger Co. (1942)
Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914	Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941) Dowling v. United States (1985)
Lanham Act	Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc. (1982) San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee (1987) Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. (1992) Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. (1995) College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board (1999) Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. (2001) TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. (2001) Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (2003) Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. (2003) Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (2014) POM Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co. (2014) Matal v. Tam (2017) Iancu v. Brunetti (2019) Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil, Inc. (2020)
Copyright Act of 1976	Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977) Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. (1984) Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder (1985) Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985) Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid (1989) Stewart v. Abend (1990) Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co. (1991) Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. (1994) Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994) Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc. (1996) Quality King Distributors Inc., v. L'anza Research International Inc. (1998) Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (1998) New York Times Co. v. Tasini (2001) Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003) MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005) Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick (2010) Golan v. Holder (2012) Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013) Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (2014) American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (2014) Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. (2017) Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com (2019) Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc. (2019) Allen v. Cooper (2020) Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. (2020)
Other copyright cases	American Lithographic Co. v. Werkmeister (1911) Ferris v. Frohman (1912) Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey v. Steinhauser (1914) International News Service v. Associated Press (1918) L. A. Westermann Co. v. Dispatch Printing Co. (1919) Lumiere v. Mae Edna Wilder, Inc. (1923) Educational Films Corp. v. Ward (1931) Fox Film Corp. v. Doyal (1932) George v. Victor Talking Machine Co. (1934) KVOS v. Associated Press (1936) Gibbs v. Buck (1939) Buck v. Gallagher (1939) Commissioner v. Wodehouse (1949) Miller Music Corp. v. Charles N. Daniels, Inc. (1960) Pub. Affairs Associates, Inc. v. Rickover (1962) Fortnightly Corp. v. United Artists Television, Inc. (1968) Goldstein v. California (1973) Teleprompter Corp. v. Columbia Broadcasting (1974) Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken (1975)
Other patent cases	Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co. (1908) Minerals Separation, Ltd. v. Hyde (1916) United States v. General Electric Co. (1926) United States v. Univis Lens Co. (1942) Altvater v. Freeman (1943) Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp. (1945) Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co. (1948) Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. (1950) Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. (1950) Aro Manufacturing Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co. (1961) Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. (1964) Wilbur-Ellis Co. v. Kuther (1964) Brulotte v. Thys Co. (1964) Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. (1965) Graham v. John Deere Co. (1966) United States v. Adams (1966) Brenner v. Manson (1966) Lear, Inc. v. Adkins (1969) Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co. (1969) Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1971) Gottschalk v. Benson (1972) United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd. (1973) Dann v. Johnston (1976) Sakraida v. Ag Pro Inc. (1976) Parker v. Flook (1978) Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980) Diamond v. Diehr (1981) Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc. (1989) Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc. (1990) Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1996) Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chemical Co. (1997) Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. (1998) Dickinson v. Zurko (1999) Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank (1999) J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (2001) Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. (2002) Merck KGaA v. Integra Lifesciences I, Ltd. (2005) eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006) Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc. (2006) LabCorp v. Metabolite, Inc. (2006) MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. (2007) KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. (2007) Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. (2007) Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. (2008) Bilski v. Kappos (2010) Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. (2011) Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. (2011) Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership (2011) Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. (2012) Kappos v. Hyatt (2012) Bowman v. Monsanto Co. (2013) Gunn v. Minton (2013) Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (2013) FTC v. Actavis, Inc. (2013) Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014) Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc. (2014) Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc. (2015) Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC (2015) Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. (2016) TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC (2017) Peter v. NantKwest, Inc. (2019)
Other trademark cases	G. & C. Merriam Co. v. Syndicate Pub. Co. (1915) Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co. (1938) Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V. (2020)

Necessary and Proper Clause of Section VIII
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Lambert v. Yellowley (1926) Sabri v. United States (2004) Gonzales v. Raich (2005) United States v. Comstock (2010) United States v. Kebodeaux (2013)

Habeas corpus Suspension Clause of Section IX
Ex parte Bollman (1807) Ex parte Merryman (1861) Ex parte Endo (1944) Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr (2001) Boumediene v. Bush (2008) Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam (2020)

No Bills of Attainder or Ex post facto Laws Clause of Section IX
Calder v. Bull (1798) Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819) Garner v. Board of Public Works (1851) De Veau v. Braisted (1860) Ex parte Garland (1866) Hawker v. New York (1898) Samuels v. McCurdy (1925) Barr v. City of Columbia (1964) Teague v. Lane (1989) Kansas v. Hendricks (1997) Smith v. Doe (2003)

Contract Clause of Section X

Legal Tender Cases

Hepburn v. Griswold (1870)

Others

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819)
Ogden v. Saunders (1827)
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)
Bronson v. Kinzie (1843)
Stone v. Mississippi (1880)
Smyth v. Ames (1898)
Block v. Hirsh (1921)
Home Building & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell (1934)
W.B. Worthen Co. v. Kavanaugh (1935)
City of El Paso v. Simmons (1965)
U.S. Trust Co. of N.Y. v. New Jersey (1977)
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus (1978)
Energy Reserves Group v. Kansas P. & L. Co. (1983)
Exxon Corp. v. Eagerton (1983)
Keystone Bituminous Coal Ass'n v. DeBenedictis (1987)
Sveen v. Melin (2018)

Import-Export Clause of Section X
Brown v. Maryland (1827) Canton Railroad Co. v. Rogan (1951)

Compact Clause of Section X
Florida v. Georgia (1855) Virginia v. West Virginia (1871) Virginia v. Tennessee (1893) Wharton v. Wise (1894) Northeast Bancorp v. Federal Reserve Board of Governors (1985) New Jersey v. New York (1998) Virginia v. Maryland (2003) Polar Tankers, Inc. v. City of Valdez (2009) Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado (2018)