Chapman v. Wintroath’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

90 federal appellate · 38 district · 1 state decisions

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 284 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““But a reading of the entire opinion demonstrates that this conclusion [that a hard and fast time limit of two years is to be applied in every case of a divisional application] is erroneous. The Court proceeds to say that divisional applications are not to be dealt with in a hostile spirit, but are to, be ‘favored to the extent that where an invention clearly disclosed in an application * * * is not claimed therein but is subsequently claimed in another application, the original will be deemed a constructive reduction of the invention to practice and the later one will be given the filing date of the earlier, with all of its priority of right.’ * * *; and, while it is not said in terms, the plain import of the citation of and reliance upon these cases [those cited] is that the effect of the two years’ delay, as recognized in those cases, may be overcome where it ‘is accounted for and excused by special circumstances, which show it to have been not unreasonable’ ; and, properly understood, there is nothing in the opinion to the contrary. “Our conclusion, therefore, is that in cases involving laches, equitable estoppel or intervening private or public rights, the two-year time limit prima facie applies to divisional applications and can only be avoided by proof of special circumstances justifying a longer delay. In other words, we follow in that respect the analogy furnished by the patent reissue cases.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Webster Electric Co. v. Splitdorf Electrical Co. · Robinson v. Heising

2. ““As has been pointed out, the Examiner of Interferences did not permit the introduction of any evidence with respect to laches or abandonment and the Court of Appeals rests its judgment, as he did, wholly upon the delay of the Chapmans in filing their divisional application for more than one year after the Wintroath patent was issued, as this appeared ‘on the face of the record.’ While not intending to intimate that there may not be abandonment which might bar an application within the two-year period allowed for filing, yet upon this discussion of the statutes and decisions we cannot doubt that, upon the case disclosed in this record, the Chapmans were within their legal rights in filing their divisional application at any time within two years after the publication of the Wintroath patent, and therefore the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be reversed.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Splitdorf Electrical Co. v. Webster Electric Co. · Chapman v. Beede

3. “‘A party seeking a right under the patent statutes may avail himself of all their provisions, and the courts may not deny him the benefit of a single one. These are questions not of natural but of purely statutory right. Congress, instead of fixing seventeen, had the power to fix thirty years as the life of a patent. No court can disregard any statutory provisions in respect to these matters on the ground that in its judgment they are unwise or prejudicial to the interests of the public.' United States v. American Bell Telephone Co., 167 U. S. 224 , 247.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hartford-Empire Co. v. United States · Esnault-Pelterie v. United States