Bragg v. Fitch’s Empirical Analysis
121 U.S. 478 · 1887
Citation profile
34 federal appellate · 3 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 84 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1963 · most notably Knapp v. Morss (1893), National Hollow Brake-Beam Co. v. Interchangeable Brake-Beam Co. (1901)
34 federal appellate · 3 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.
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 84 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is obvious from the foregoing review of prior patents, that the invention of Bristol, if his snap-hook contains a patentable invention, is but one in a Kiries of improvements all having the same general object and purpose; and that in construing the claims of his patent they must he restricted to the precise form and arrangement of parts described in his specification, and to tho purpose indicated therein.””
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.