Lotus Development Corporation v. Borland International Inc’s Empirical Analysis
49 F.3d 807 · 1995
Citation profile
29 federal appellate · 41 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 112 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Danjaq Llc Delaware Limited Liability Company v. Sony Corporation (2001), CMM Cable Rep, Inc. v. Ocean Coast Properties, Inc. (1996)
29 federal appellate · 41 district · 1 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
Applies 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 102 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 410 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises · Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. · Bryson Properties, XVIII v. Travelers Insurance Co. · National Educational Support Systems, Inc. v. Autoskill, Inc.
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 112 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) ownership of a valid copyright, and (2) copying of constituent elements of the work that are original.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[The plaintiff] may either present direct evidence of factual copying or, if that is unavailable, evidence that the alleged infringer had access to the copyrighted work and that the offending and copyrighted works are so similar that the court may infer that there was factual copying (i.e., probative similarity). The plaintiff must then prove that the copyrighting of copyrighted material was so extensive that it rendered the offending and copyrighted works substantially similar.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the copying of copyrighted material was so extensive that it rendered the offending and copyrighted works substantially similar.”
5 later decisions 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.