Blake v. City and County of San Francisco’s Empirical Analysis
113 U.S. 679 · 1885
Citation profile
70 federal appellate · 20 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 144 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 1963 · most notably Cuno Engineering Corporation v. Automatic Devices Corporation (1941), Dolbear v. American Bell Telephone Co. (1888)
70 federal appellate · 20 district · 1 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 Pennsylvania Co v. Locomotive Engine Safety Truck Co · David Prouty John Mears v. Draper Ruggles
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 144 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The application of an old process or machine to a similar or analagous subject, with no change in the manner of application and no result substantially distinct in its nature, will not sustain a patent, even if the new form of result has not been heretofore contemplated.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage““The second claim in the reissued patent of September 18,1S77, to Charles E. Blake, assignee of the administratrix of Thomas H. Bailey, deceased, for an improvement in relief valves for water cylinders, is for a combination of an automatic valve with a pinhole and pin to effect the desired object; and, as automatic valves had been previously used for that purpose in other combinations, it is not infringed by a combination of such a valve with a screw, sleeve, or cap to effect the same objects. “The adaptation of an automatic valve, a device known and in use before the plaintiff’s patent, to a steam fire engine, is not such invention as will sustain a patent. “Where the public has acquired the right to use a machine or device for a particular purpose, it has the right to üse it for all like purposes to which it can be applied, unless a new and different result is obtained by a new application of it.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““If there is any qualification of this rule, it is that, if a new and different ’ result is obtained by a new application of an invention, such new- application may be patented as an improvement on the original invention; but, it' the result claimed as new is the same in character as the original result, it will not be deemed a new result for this purpose. For instance, an automatic relief valve, used to relieve the pressure of steam, produces no new result in character when used to relieve the pressure of water, unless some further effect besides the mere relief of pressure is obtained.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.