Aron v. Manhattan Ry. Co.’s Empirical Analysis
26 F. 314 · 1886
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1918
1 federal appellate · 1 district ·
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.
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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The patentee is entitled to the merit of being the first; to conceive of the convenience and utility of a gate opening- and closing- mechanism which could be operated efficiently by an attendant in the new situation. His right to a patent, however, must, rest upon the novelty of the means he contrives to carry his idea into practical application. It rarely happens that old instrumentalities are so perfectly adapted for a use for which they were not originally intended as not to require any alteration or modification. If these changes involve only the exercise of ordinary mechanical skill, they do not sanction the patent; and, in most of the adjudged cases, where it has been held that the application of old devices to a new use was not patentable, there were changes of form, proportion, or organization of this character which were necessary to accommodate them to the new occasion. The present case falls within this category.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““The patentee is entitled to the merit of being the first to conceive of the convenience and utility of a gate opening and closing mechanism which could be operated efficiently by an attendant in the new situation. His right to a patent, however, must rest upon tlie novelty of the means he contrives to carry his idea into practical operation.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““It seems impossible to.doubt that any competent mechanic familiar with devices well known in the state of the art could have done this readily and successfully upon the mere suggestion of the purpose which it was desirable to effect.””
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.