Baker v. Selden’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

141 federal appellate · 35 district · 7 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 326 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]here the art [that a science book] teaches cannot be used without employing the methods and diagrams used to illustrate the book, or such as are similar to them, such methods and diagrams are to be considered as necessary incidents to the art[.]”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · Kregos v. Associated Press

2. ““Congress shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their writings and discoveries.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lasercomb America, Inc. v. Reynolds · National Cloak & Suit Co. v. Kaufman

3. ““To give to the author'of the book an exclusive property in the art described therein, when no examination of its novelty has ever been officially made, would be a surprise and a fraud upon the public. That is the province of letters-patent, not of copyright. The claim to an invention or discovery of an art or manufacture must be subjected to the examination of the Patent Office before an exclusive right therein can.be obtained; and it can only be secured by a patent from the government.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc. · Stein v. Benaderet