United States v. Univis Lens Co.’s Empirical Analysis
316 U.S. 241 · 1942
Citation profile
150 federal appellate · 72 district · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 568 later decisions (69 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2020 · most notably Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of Illinois Foundation (1971), United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948)
150 federal appellate · 72 district · 31 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.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. · Eastman Kodak Co of New York v. Southern Photo Materials Co · Fashion Originators' Guild of America, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission · United States v. Trenton Potteries Co. · Morton Salt Co. v. G. S. Suppiger Co.
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 568 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]here one has sold an uncompleted article which, because it embodies essential features of his patented invention, is within the protection of his patent, and has destined the article to be finished by the purchaser in conformity to the patent, he has sold his invention so far as it is or may be embodied in that particular article.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[s]ale of a lens blank by the patentee or by his licensee is thus in itself both a complete transfer of ownership of the blank, which is within the protection of the patent law, and a license to practice the final stage of the patent procedure.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“construing and applying the patent law so as to give effect to the public policy which limits the granted monopoly strictly to the terms of the statutory grant”
6 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.