A. C. Gilbert Co. v. Shemitz’s Empirical Analysis
45 F.2d 98 · 1930
Citation profile
21 federal appellate · 5 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 46 later decisions — most recently March 1973 · most notably Alfred Bell & Co. v. Catalda Fine Arts, Inc. (1951), General Time Instruments Corp. v. United States Time Corp. (1948)
21 federal appellate · 5 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 Smith v. Whitman Saddle Co. · Crescent Tool Co. v. Kilborn & Bishop Co. · Miller Rubber Co. v. Behrend
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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“' “If the design goes no farther than. to embody an obvious Neatness and attractiveness that will make articles of" household use more compact and pleas-ing than has generally been the case,., this is not in itself enough. The shape-of a tin can might be thought to reach» this degree of attractiveness, yet it-would hardly be said to furnish a pat-, entable design for a coffee pot. The-subject of design patents is difficult, for there are no standards. Yet we-are obliged to determine, as- best we-may, whether the design in question is.i original and aesthetic and; involved a-. . step beyond the prior art requiring . what it termed ‘inventive genius.’ ””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * But, whatever may be thought of the appeal to aesthetic taste, we are satisfied that there was no inventive skill in the slight modification of prior models involved in working out the design of the patent in suit.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is to be remembered that the defendants would have the right to copy the Gilbert design slavishly so long as they did not represent that the goods sold were those of the complainant.”
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.