In re Fielder’s Empirical Analysis
471 F.2d 640 · 1973
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 3 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently March 2006 · most notably Stratoflex, Inc. v. Aeroquip Corp. (1983), Merck & Co. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. (2005)
4 federal appellate · 3 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. § 103 · 35 U.S.C. § 144
Relies on Graham v. John Deere Company of Kansas City Calmar Inc · Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of Illinois Foundation · Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. · Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co. · Reeves Instrument Corporation and Dynamics Corporation of America v. Beckman Instruments, Incorporated
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Such secondary considerations as commercial success, long felt but unsolved needs, . . . might be utilized to give light to the circumstances surrounding the origin of the subject matter sought to be patented. As indicia of obviousness or nonobviousness, these inquiries may have relevancy.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Moran v. Tegemeyer“[t]he possibility of market success attendant upon the solution of an existing problem may induce innovators to attempt a solution. If in fact a product attains a high degree of commercial success, there is a basis for inferring that such attempts have been made and have failed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[t]hese rationales, presumably approved by the [Supreme] Court, tie commercial success and the like directly to the practical, financial source of impetus for research and development.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.