General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co.’s Empirical Analysis
304 U.S. 175 · 1938
Citation profile
87 federal appellate · 26 district · 16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 319 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably Radio Officers' Union of the Commercial Telegraphers Union v. National Labor Relations Board (1954), National Labor Relations Board v. Columbian Enameling & Stamping Co. (1939)
87 federal appellate · 26 district · 16 state decisions
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
reviewedWestern Electric Co. v. General Talking Pictures Corp. (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 35 U.S.C. § 31
Relies on Crowell v. Benson · United States v. Chemical Foundation, Inc. · Waterman v. Mackenzie · McClain v. Ortmayer · Motion Picture Patents Company v. Universal Film Manufacturing Company
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 319 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In the absence of intervening adverse rights for more than two years prior to the continuation applications, they were [filed] in time.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“One having obtained a writ of certiorari to review specified questions is not entitled here to obtain decision on any other issue.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“2. Can a patent owner, merely by a “license notice” attached to a device made under the patent, and sold in the ordinary channels of trade, place an enforceable restriction on the purchaser thereof as to the use to which the purchaser may put the device?”
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.