Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
372 federal appellate · 288 district · 242 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,655 later decisions (15 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably 29 Cal. 4th 53 - Equilon Enterprises v. Consumer Cause, Inc. (2002), 28 Cal. 4th 811 - Wilson v. Parker, Covert & Chidester (2002)
372 federal appellate · 288 district · 242 state decisions — followed in 26 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1 (§ 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act) · 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 106 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 109 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Christiansburg Garment Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · Farrar v. Hobby · Hughes v. Rowe · Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc.
Cited together with Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc. · California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited · United Mine Workers v. Pennington · City of Columbia v. Omni Outdoor Advertising, Inc. · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 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 1,655 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“an attempt to interfere directly with the business relationships of a competitor,”
136 later decisions quote this exact passage“A winning lawsuit is by definition a reasonable effort at petitioning for redress and therefore not a sham.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[t]he existence of probable cause to institute legal proceedings precludes a finding that an antitrust defendant has engaged in sham litigation.”
16 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.