Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Dumas’s Empirical Analysis
53 F.3d 549 · 1995
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 9 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 84 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably Schlaifer Nance Company v. Estate of Andy Warhol W (1997), Warren
23 federal appellate · 9 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. § 201 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 204 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Consumer Product Safety Commission v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. · Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid · Coastal Steel Corp. v. Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc. · Waller v. Georgia · Gemelli v. Pennsylvania
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 84 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage“By endorsement, payee: acknowledges payment in full for services rendered on a work-made-for-hire basis in connection with the Work named on the face of this check, and confirms ownership by Playboy Enterprises, Inc. of all right, title and interest (except physical possession), including all rights of copyright, in and to the Work.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage“In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.”
7 later decisions 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.