Putnam v. Tinkham’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “. “The claim is as follows : ‘The internally located bottle stopper, B, provided with a hinged or jointed handle or bail, 0, composed of two elastic legs or branches, and an eye or finger loop, as and for the purpose set forth.’ He virtually disclaims rigid handles, and says that his invention is designed to avoid such a method of construction. It is useless to say that by a rigid handle he merely meant a bail without spring action, for the entire paragraph shows that he also meant a handle so jointed or hinged to the stopper that it could be turned away from the mouth of the bottle. He intended to point out that his handle or bail was both hinged to the stopper and had elastic legs. The reissue covers a device in which the bail is attached to the stopper in any manner. The hinged construction is briefly alluded to as one which accomplishes a certain result. * * * In the original patent the patentee informed the public, with precision, and after deliberation, that his invention was an improvement upon a rigid handle, and limited himself to a hinged or jointed handle. It has now become important for the plaintiff to possess himself of the territory which his assignor attempted to occupy, but abandoned, and the ownership of which he virtually disclaimed. A comparison of the two patents shows that the case is clearly within the principles which have been recently and frequently announced by the supreme court as applicable to reissues. The reissue is void because it is on its fac”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Edgarton v. Furst & Bradley Manuf'g Co.