In re Best’s Empirical Analysis
562 F.2d 1252 · 1977
Citation profile
3 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently September 2017 · most notably In re Schreiber (1997), Leinoff v. Louis Milona & Sons, Inc. (1984)
3 federal appellate ·
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. § 102 · 35 U.S.C. § 103 · 35 U.S.C. § 112
Relies on In re Swinehart · In re Pearson · In re Brown · In re Ludtke · In re Blondel
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“if the claimed and prior art products are identical or substantially identical, the USPTO can require an applicant to prove that the prior art product does not necessarily or inherently possess the characteristics of the claimed product. In order to invoke the principles of In re Best, the USPTO makes factual findings on a case-by-case basis which support a conclusion that the claimed and prior art products prima facie are “identical or substantially identical.” Simply put, Best is applied when the USPTO does not have sufficient evidence upon which to base facts to determine whether a difference exists between claimed subject matter and a prior art reference .... If the facts in a case allow the USPTO to make that inference, the USPTO may properly invoke the principles of In re Best and shift the burden to applicants to come forward with evidence establishing that the respective products differ.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“to prove that the prior art products do not necessarily or inherently possess the characteristics of his claimed product.”
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.