Mahn v. Harwood’s Empirical Analysis
112 U.S. 354 · 1884
Citation profile
230 federal appellate · 62 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 560 later decisions (84 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2023 · most notably Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. (1950), Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. (1950)
230 federal appellate · 62 district · 5 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Throckmorton · Atlantio Works v. Brady Brady · Smith v. Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Co. · Leavenworth Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company v. United States
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 560 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he public is notified and informed, by the most solemn act on the part of the patentee, that his claim to invention is for such and such an element or combination, and for nothing more.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In cases of patents for inventions, a valid defense, not given by the statute, often arises where the question is whether the thing patented amounts to a patentable invention. This being a question of law, the courts are not bound by the decision of the commissioner, although he must necessarily pass upon it. [Many cases cited.]”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If a .patentee has not claimed as much as he is entitled to, he is bound to discover the fact in a reasonable time, or he loses .all right to a reissue.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.