Lewys v. O'Neill’s Empirical Analysis
49 F.2d 603 · 1931
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 7 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 1994 · most notably Fogerty Fantasy Inc (1994), 35 Cal. 2d 653 - Stanley v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (1950)
3 federal appellate · 7 district · 4 state decisions
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 Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp. · The El Sol · Briggs v. United States
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The similarity of sentiment, thought and treatment of each of the two songs here in issue is only natural and does not spell copying and/or infringement. Apropos of this, Judge Woolsey, in Lewys v. O’Neill, D.C., 49 F.2d 603 , at page 606, quoted Dr. Samuel Johnson (October 2, 1753) on this subject: '* * * A coincidence of sentiment may easily happen without any communication, since there are many occasions in which all reasonable men will nearly think alike. Writers of all ages have had the same sentiments, because they have in all ages had the same objects of speculation; the interests and passions, the virtues and vices of mankind, have been diversified in different times; only by unessential and casual varieties; and we must, therefore, expect in the words of all those who attempt to describe them, such a likeness as we find in the pictures of the same person drawn in different periods of his life.’ ””
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.