Berkeley Pump Co. v. Jacuzzi Bros.’s Empirical Analysis
214 F.2d 785 · 1954
Citation profile
26 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently August 1973 · most notably Monroe Auto Equipment Co. v. Heckethorn Manufacturing & Supply Co. (1964), Hygienic Specialties Co. v. H. G. Salzman, Inc. (1962)
26 federal appellate ·
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 Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. · Lincoln Engineering Co of Illinois v. Stewart-Warner Corporation · Slocum v. New York Life Insurance · Baltimore & Carolina Line, Inc. v. Redman · Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co. v. Walker
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * simply saying that where a mechanical combination device represents only an integration of various old elements and the combination clearly reveals that its old elements thus brought into conjunction or concert do not functionally operate differently therein than they did before integration, then it is not a patentable invention. In other words, * * * does * * * the device 'exceed (s) the sum of its parts’. If the evidence clearly establishes that the device is of the type just above described, it obviously lacks the quality of invention. * * * And this rule applies regardless of the scope and breadth of the claims of such a patent, because patent claims may not override such established physical facts.” [Emphasis by the Court.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““The mere aggregation of a number of old parts or elements which, in the aggregation, perform or produce no new or different function or operation than that theretofore performed or produced by them, (the old parts) is not patentable invention. * * * The conjunction or concert of known elements must contribute something; only when the whole in some way exceeds the sum of its parts is the-accumulation of old devices patentable.””
1 later decision 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.