Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ This expression, that the third paragraph of the contract of January 19, 1912, 'is a statement of the least that defendant was to do, not of the most that he was to have,' is repeated in the opinion of each of the three courts as the sufficient reason for concluding, as the District Court said, that the contract gave to the defendant 'all the rights mentioned for all time.' It is not the first time that a catchy phrase has diverted attention from less picturesque realities. ”

“ The inference that the license to produce continued after the obligation to produce expired, in my judgment, can be sustained only by neglecting the specific provision of the first paragraph, that the license granted is subject to the limitations which should follow, and which did follow in the third paragraph. It involves imposing, by judicial construction, heavy and unusual burdens upon the author of a successful dramatic composition in the interest of a commercial producer-a result which courts should not strain themselves to accomplish. ”