Western Electric Co. v. LaRue’s Empirical Analysis
139 U.S. 601 · 1891
Citation profile
87 federal appellate · 46 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 233 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 1980 · most notably Potts v. Creager (1895), Mast Foos Company v. Stover Manufacturing Company (1900)
87 federal appellate · 46 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 Winans v. Adam Edward and Talbot Denmead · Lehnbeuter v. Holthaus · Sewall v. Jones
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 233 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Indeed. Hiero is nothing in any of these exhibí Is which shows ilie use of a torsional spring in a telegraphic instrument, and. while this invention does not seem to he one of great importance, we think the adaption of this somewhat unfamiliar spring to (his new use. and its consequent simplification of mechanism, .justly entitles the patentee 1o the right of an inventor.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““While the promotion "of an old device, such, for instance, as a torsional spring, to a new sphere of action, in which it performs a new function, involves invention, the transfer or adaptation of the same device to a similar sphere of action, where it performs substantially the same function, does not involve invention.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“in substituting for the trunnions or pivots upon which the lever vibrates a torsional spring or strip of metal”
1 later decision 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.