Alcatel USA, Inc. v. DGI Technologies, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
166 F.3d 772 · 1999
Citation profile
43 federal appellate · 7 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 130 later decisions — most recently May 2025 · most notably General Universal Systems, Inc. v. Lee (2004), Positive Black Talk Inc. v. Cash Money Records Inc. (2004)
43 federal appellate · 7 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
Applies 17 U.S.C. § 102 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 103 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 106 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 117 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 301 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 501 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 502 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 503 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on United States v. Grinnell Corp. · Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc. · University of Texas v. Camenisch · Precision Instrument Mfg Co v. Automotive Maintenance Machinery 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 130 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“all legal or equitable rights that are equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright as specified by section 106 in works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression and come within the subject matter of copyright as specified by sections 102 and 103 ... are governed exclusively by this title. Thereafter, no person is entitled to any such right or equivalent right in any such work under the common law or statutes of any State.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“According to this test, if the act or acts of [the defendant] about which [the plaintiff] complains would violate both [state law] and copyright law, then the state right is deemed “equivalent to copyright.” If, however, one or more qualitatively different elements are required to constitute the state-created cause of action being asserted, then the right granted under state law does not lie “within the general scope of copyright,” and preemption does not occur.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'approach[ ] this requirement with a liberal spirit.'”
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.