In re Hughes’s Empirical Analysis
496 F.2d 1216 · 1974
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 3 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently October 2010
1 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. § 112
Relies on In re Pilkington · In re Steppan · In re Johnson
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[TJhe Commissioner of Patents enunciated the general rule that a product should not be defined in terms of the process of making it. In Painter, a proper exception to the general rule was found on the ground that the product could not be properly defined and discriminated from the prior art otherwise than by reference to the process of producing it. This basic rule and the ex ception have been recognized and followed continuously by the Patent Office and the Courts.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“We agree with appellant that the [general] rule should not be applied to the situation before us. We have been shown no true product claim which describes appellant’s invention, in the words of the solicitor, “in terms of structure or physical characteristics.” When an applicant seeks to describe his invention by a product-by-process claim because he finds that his invention is incapable of description solely by structure or physical characteristics, it is incumbent upon the Patent Office to indicate where, or how, the applicant’s invention is, or may be, so described.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“12. Shakes manufactured from a shake bolt by the process of making a plurality of cuts into and across the shake bolt to an extent to establish predetermined tip lengths, and splitting the weather end portions of the shakes from the bolt by starting the splits at the inner ends of the cuts and continuing the splits to the end of the bolt.”
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.