The first American motion picture studios were established in and around New York City in the 1900s. Thomas Edison, who claimed the patents for many technical developments in early filmmaking, established the Motion Picture Patents Company in 1909. Producers seeking to avoid paying the stiff licensing fees demanded by Edison's New York Patents Company headed for the West Coast. Filmmakers at the Hollywood studios, whenever threatened with a lawsuit by Edison, simply crossed the border into Mexico where American patent law held no jurisdiction. By 1913, the success of such evasive practices contributed to Hollywood's becoming America's movie capital.