Rowell v. Lindsay’s Empirical Analysis
113 U.S. 97 · 1885
Citation profile
67 federal appellate · 17 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 160 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1995 · most notably Mercoid Corporation v. Mid-Continent Inv Co (1944), Pennwalt Corporation, Appellant/cross-Appellee v. Durand-Wayland, Inc., Appellee/cross-Appellant (1987)
67 federal appellate · 17 district ·
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 Seymour v. Osborne · Miller v. Brass Co. · Merrill v. Yeomans · Dunbar v. Myers · Imhaeuser v. Buerk
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 160 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Where a patentee, after describing a machine, claims as his invention a certain combination of elements, or a certain device, or part of the machine, this is an implied declaration as conclusive, so far as that patent is concerned, as if it were expressed that the specific combination or thing claimed is the only part which the patentee regards as new. True, he or some other person may have a distinct patent for the portions not covered by this; but that will speak for itself. So far as the patent in question is concerned, the remaining parts are old or common and public.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“•• ‘This combination, composed of all the parts mentioned in the specification, and' arranged with reference to each other and to other parts of the plough in the manner therein described, is stated to be the improvement, and is the thing patented. The use of any two of these parts only, or of two combined with a third, which is substantially different, in form or in the manner of its arrangement and connection with the. others, is therefore not the thing patented. It is not' the same combination if it substantially differs from it in any of its parts. The jogging of the standard into the beam, and its extension backward from the bolt, ate both treated by the plaintiffs as essential parts of their combination for the purpose of brace and draft. Consequently, the use of either alone, by the defendants, would not be the same improvement, nor infringe the patent of the plaintiffs.’ This was quoted with approval in Rowell v. Lindsay, supra, and the court added: ‘But this rule is subject to the qualification that a combination may be infringed when some of the elements are employed and for the others mechanical equivalents are used which were known to be such at the time when the patent was granted.’ ””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"There can be no infringement unless the combination is infringed. * * * But this rule is subject to the qualification that a combination may be in-iTiwgod when some of the elements are employed and for the others mechanical equivalents are used which were known to be such at the time when the patent was granted.””
2 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.