Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
343 federal appellate · 189 district · 82 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,259 later decisions (51 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1995), Wyeth v. Levine (2009)
343 federal appellate · 189 district · 82 state decisions — followed in 16 states
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 15 U.S.C. § 1125 (§ 43 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act)) · 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 28 U.S.C. § 1338 · 35 U.S.C. § 101 · 35 U.S.C. § 102 · 35 U.S.C. § 103 · 35 U.S.C. § 112 · 35 U.S.C. § 154
Relies on Graham v. John Deere Company of Kansas City Calmar Inc · Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp. · Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul · United States v. Bass · Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc.
Cited together with Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co. · Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp. · Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc. · Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H
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 1,259 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[The inventor] may keep his invention secret and reap its fruits indefinitely. In consideration of its disclosure and the consequent benefit to the community, the patent is granted. An exclusive enjoyment is guaranteed him for seventeen years, but upon expiration of that period, the knowledge of the invention inures to the people, who are thus enabled without restriction to practice it and profit by its use.”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“The law of unfair competition has its roots in the common-law tort of deceit: its general concern is with protecting consumers from confusion as to source.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“The case for federal pre-emption is particularly weak where Congress has indicated its awareness of the operation of state law in a field of federal interest, and has nonetheless decided to stand by both concepts and to tolerate whatever tension there is between them.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.