Fleischmann Distilling Corp. v. Maier Brewing Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1967
Citation profile
654 federal appellate · 156 district · 345 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,813 later decisions (33 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society (1975), Chambers v. Nasco, Inc. (1991)
654 federal appellate · 156 district · 345 state decisions — followed in 34 states
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
reviewedMaier Brewing Company, a Corp. v. The Fleischmann Distilling Corp., Maier Brewing Company, a Corp. v. James Buchanan & Co., Ltd. (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1051 (§ 1 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act)) · 15 U.S.C. § 1116 (§ 34 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act)) · 15 U.S.C. § 1117 (§ 35 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act)) · 15 U.S.C. § 15 (§ 4 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914) · 15 U.S.C. § 77K (§ 11 of the Securities Act of 1933) · 15 U.S.C. § 77W (§ 23 of the Securities Act of 1933) · 15 U.S.C. § 78I (§ 9 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) · 17 U.S.C. § 116
Relies on Sprage v. Ticonic Nat Bank · Vaughan v. Atkinson · Trustees v. Greenough · Farmer v. Arabian American Oil Co.
Cited together with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · Hall v. Cole · Mills v. Electric Auto-Lite Co. · Sprage v. Ticonic Nat Bank · F. D. Rich Co. v. United States Ex Rel. Industrial Lumber 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 1,813 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“one should not be penalized for merely defending or prosecuting a lawsuit, and that the poor might be unjustly discouraged from instituting actions to vindicate their rights if the penalty for losing included the fees of their opponents' counsel.”
26 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“attorney's fees are not ordinarily recoverable in the absence of a statute or enforceable contract providing therefor.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“When a cause of action has been created by a statute which expressly provides the remedies for vindication of the cause, other remedies should not readily be implied.”
11 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.