S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
116 F.2d 427 · 1940
Citation profile
32 federal appellate · 7 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions — most recently April 2004 · most notably Scott Paper Company v. Scott's Liquid Gold Inc (1978), Scarves By Vera, Inc. v. Todo Imports Ltd. (1976)
32 federal appellate · 7 district · 2 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 Thaddeus Davids Co. v. Davids Manufacturing Co. · Waterman Company v. Modern Pen Company No 54 Modern Pen Company · Emerson Electric Mfg. Co. v. Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp. · John B. Stetson Co. v. Stephen L. Stetson Co.
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“`* * * It is true that a merchant who has sold one kind of goods, sometimes finds himself driven to add other "lines”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[w]hen all is said, if a man allows the good will of his business to become identified with a surname so common as Johnson, it is fair to impose upon him some of the risk that another Johnson may wish to sell goods not very far afield; and he must show a substantial interest if he would seriously impair the second Johnson’s privilege to use his own name in customary ways.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is well settled that a newcomer may be compelled to add some distinguishing words if he chooses to use even his own surname to conduct his business.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Dolby v. Robertson
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.