Wright v. Yuengling’s Empirical Analysis
155 U.S. 47 · 1894
Citation profile
73 federal appellate · 15 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 157 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1987 · most notably Pennwalt Corporation, Appellant/cross-Appellee v. Durand-Wayland, Inc., Appellee/cross-Appellant (1987), Cimiotti Unhairing Company v. American Fur Refining Company (1905)
73 federal appellate · 15 district · 3 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 Smith v. Nichols · Hall v. Macneale · Gage v. Herring · Water-Meter Company v. Desper
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 157 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The patentee, having described it in the specification, and declared it to be an essential feature of Ms invention, and having made it an element of these two claims, is not now at liberty to say that it is immaterial, or that a device which dispenses with it is an infringement, though it accomplish the same purpose in, perhaps, an equally effective manner.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If the combination of the trough and cylindrical guide of the Wright patent gives greater lightness and strength to the frame than the combination of the trough and the flat guides of the Farrar patent, it is a mere difference in degree, and carrying forward of an old idea — a result, perhaps, somewhat more perfect than had theretofoie been attained, but not rising to the dignity of invention. We have repeatedly held patents of this description to be invalid.””
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.