In re STEELBUILDING.COM’s Empirical Analysis
415 F.3d 1293 · 2005
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently April 2025
17 federal appellate · 1 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
Relies on Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corporation Same · Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. · Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. · Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp. · Estate of Beckwith v. Commissioner of Patents
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In determining whether secondary meaning has been acquired, the Board may examine copying, advertising expenditures, sales success, length and exclusivity of use, unsolicited media coverage, and consumer studies (linking the name to a source).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he applicant's burden of showing acquired distinctiveness increases with the level of descriptiveness; a more descriptive term requires more evidence of secondary meaning.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he greater the degree of descriptiveness the term has, the heavier the burden to prove it has attained secondary meaning.”
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.