Etherington v. Hardee’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate ·

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.

1. “It is alleged that Hughes Tool Company, Huntsinger Associates, and plaintiff were involved in an interference proceeding before the United States Patent Office concerning applications for the patent in question. As the result of an agreement between these parties and a decision on priority in favor of Hughes, plaintiff obtained `the exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license with the irrevocable, royalty-free exclusive right to grant sub-licenses to manufacture, use and sell throughout the world mud guns and line jets used above ground according to the disclosure of said Payne application Serial No. 420,994 and any United States or Foreign Patent obtained by Payne or by Hughes thereon.' Plaintiff's exclusive field was protected from invasion by subsequent licenses through several express covenants of Hughes and Huntsinger. It was agreed that the party awarded priority (Hughes) would grant to the other parties (including plaintiff) `the sole and exclusive right in their respective fields of operation to sue for enforcement and infringement of the patent.' The agreement further provided that the party awarded priority would join in any such action and thereby granted to the other parties the right to join in as a proper party to any action to enforce the rights provided thereunder. Originally Hughes was a party plaintiff but voluntarily dismissed its suit on August 24, 1959.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Etherington v. Hardee