E. I. Du Pont De Nemours Powder Co. v. Masland’s Empirical Analysis
244 U.S. 100 · 1917
Citation profile
100 federal appellate · 50 district · 132 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 439 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2018 · most notably Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co. (1984), Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp. (1974)
100 federal appellate · 50 district · 132 state decisions — followed in 21 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedMasland v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours Powder Co. (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Masland v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours Powder Co. · E. I. Du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. v. Masland · E. I. Du Pont De Nemours Powder Co. v. Masland
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 439 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The word `property' as applied to trademarks and trade-secrets is an unanalyzed expression of certain secondary consequences of the primary fact that the law makes some rudimentary requirements of good faith. Whether the plaintiffs have any valuable secret or not the defendant knows the facts, whatever they are, through a special confidence that he accepted. The property may be denied but the confidence cannot be.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It will be understood that if, in the opinion of the trial judge, it is or should become necessary to reveal the secrets to others, it will rest in the judge's discretion to determine whether, to whom, and under what precautions, the revelation should be made.”
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.