Newton v. Diamond’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 federal appellate · 3 district ·

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

1. “exists where the defendant copies a portion of the plaintiffs work exactly or nearly exactly, without appropriating the work’s overall essence or structure. [Citation omitted]. Because the degree of similarity is high in such cases, the dispositive question is whether the similarity goes to trivial or substantial elements. The substantiality of the similarity is measured by considering the qualitative and quantitative significance of the copied portion in relation to the plaintiffs work as a whole. See, e.g., Worth v. Selchow & Righter Co., 827 F.2d 569 , 570 n. 1 (9th Cir.1987) (“[T]he relevant inquiry is whether a substantial portion of the protectable material in the plaintiffs work was appropriated — not whether a substantial portion of defendant’s work was derived from plaintiffs work.”); Jarvis v. A & M Records, 827 F.Supp. 282, 289-90 (D.N.J.1993); 4 Nimmer § 13.03[A][2], at 13-47 to 48 & n. 97. This focus on the sample’s relation to the plaintiffs work as a whole embodies the fundamental question in any infringement action, as expressed more than 150 years ago by Justice Story: whether “so much is taken[ ] that the value of the original is sensibly diminished, or the labors of the original author are substantially to an injurious extent appropriated by another.” Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F.Cas. 342, 348 (C.C.D.Mass.1841) (No. 4901).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 307 F. Supp. 2d 928 - Neal Publications v. F & W PUBLICATIONS, INC.