Harper v. Zimmermann’s Empirical Analysis
41 F.2d 261 · 1930
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 6 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 1982
5 federal appellate · 6 district ·
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
Applies 35 U.S.C. § 31
Relies on Washburn Moen Manuf'G Co v. Beat 'Em All Barbed-Wire Co · Loom Company v. Higgins · Seymour v. Osborne · Alexander Milburn Co. v. Davis-Bournonville Co. · Gayler v. Wilder
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The notebook sketch of 1917 was but a rough drawing. The reproductions of that lost sketch were made from memory and the oral testimony with respect thereto was given after the lapse of many years. While I do not question the belief of Harper, Aldrin, or Brown with respect to the accuracy of their recollection, I must not ignore the well-established fact that, other things being equal, memory fades with the lapse of time. The picture drawn from memory after the lapse of years is frequently colored all unconsciously by present knowledge.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Private unpublished drawings may be mislaid or hidden so as to preclude all probability of the public ever deriving any benefit therefrom, and the policy and language of the law combine to forbid that that from which the public may derive no benefit shall serve to defeat a patent for which the public has received, as a consideration, full disclosure.””
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.