Maier v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
17 F. 736 · 1883
Citation profile
3
cited by 3 later decisions
February 1915
most recently cited
1 federal appellate · 1 district ·
Relationships
Relies on Elizabeth v. Pavement Co. · Littlefield v. Perry · Mowry v. Whitney · Seymour v. McCormick · Philp v. Nock
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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““There is no doubt whatever of the general proposition that the patentee of an improvement is limited in his recovery to such profits as may be properly apportioned to the use of his improvement. ' He can only recover profits upon the entire artiple when such article is wholly his own invention, or when its entire value is properly and legally attributable to the patentable feature. * * * The difficulty is in the application of this principle. Thus,if one discovers a new composition of matter, such as gun-cotton, nitro-glycer-ine, or vulcanized rubber, or invents some new machine, such as the telephone, or some new article of manufacture, such as barbed wire, or a new pavement, he would obviously be entitled to damages arising from the manufacture and sale of the entire article. Upon the other hand, if his invention were limited to some particular part of a large machine, such as the cut-off of an engine, the axle of a wagon, or the seat upon a mowing-machine, it is equally clear that his recovery must be limited to such profits as arise from the manufacture and sale of the patented feature. His damages, too, must be proved, and not left to conjecture; and the fact that it is impossible to separate, the profits arising frojn the improvement from those incident to the manufacture of the whole machine, is an insufficient reason for awarding the plaintiff more than he is entitled to receive. * * * In case he is unable to prove how much of the entire profit upon the machine is du”
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.