Altoona Publix Theatres, Inc. v. American Tri-Ergon Corp.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

361 federal appellate · 131 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 768 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““An improvement to an apparatus or method, to be patentable, must be the result of invention, and not the mere exercise of the skill of the calling or an advance plainly indicated by the prior art. Electric Cable Joint Co. v. Brooklyn Edison Co., 292 U.S. 69, 79, 80 , 54 S.Ct. 586 , 78 L.Ed. 1131 . * * * “However skillfully this was done, and even though there was produced a machine of greater precision and a higher degree of motion constancy, and hence one more useful in the art, it was still the product of skill, not of invention.” (Cases cited and see also Cuno Engineering Corp. v. Automatic Devices Corp., 314 U.S. 84 , 62 S.Ct. 37 , 86 L.Ed. 58 ).”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Knight-Morley Corp. v. Ajax Mfg. Corp. · James Heddon's Sons v. American Fork & Hoe Co.

2. “Upon the filing of the disclaimers, ... the public was entitled to manufacture and use the device originally claimed as freely as though [the claim] had been abandoned.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Vectra Fitness, Inc. v. TNWK Corp. · Guinn v. Kopf

3. “it is the claims of the patent which define the invention.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Simpleair, Inc. v. Google LLC · Innova/Pure Water, Inc. v. Safari Water Filtration Systems, Inc.