Watson v. Stevens’s Empirical Analysis
51 F. 757 · 1892
Citation profile
21 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently June 1916 · most notably Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. v. Stanley Instrument Co. (1904), Meccano, Ltd. v. Wagner (1916)
21 federal appellate · 1 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
Relies on Washburn Moen Manuf'G Co v. Beat 'Em All Barbed-Wire Co · Loom Company v. Higgins · McClain v. Ortmayer · Topliff v. Topliff · Smith v. Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Co.
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We conclude, therefore, that in applying to cases of doubt the primary rules touching what constitutes invention, and the secondary rules touching what is a ‘new and useful result,’ a ‘new function,’ or a ‘new sphere of action,’ we may be influenced by the facts that the improvement in question, although desired for years, was not secured until brought out by the patentee; that the product of the improved machine or process went into general use by the manufacturers for whom it was'intended, and displaced wholly or in a very large degree prior products; and that while all prior products had been unsuitable, either through lack of cheapness or adaptation, the new product answered all reasonable requirements.””
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.