United States v. Hamilton’s Empirical Analysis
583 F.2d 448 · 1978
Citation profile
18 federal appellate · 6 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 38 later decisions — most recently March 2022 · most notably Transgo, Inc. v. Ajac Transmission Parts Corp. (1985), Del Madera Properties v. Rhodes & Gardner, Inc. (1987)
18 federal appellate · 6 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 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 104 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co. · Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. · Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony · Alfred Bell & Co. v. Catalda Fine Arts, Inc. · Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp.
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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[O]riginality may be found in taking the commonplace and making it into a new combination or arrangement.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Trivial elements of compilation and arrangement, of course, are not copyrightable because they fall below the threshold of originality.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Satava v. Lowry · Satava v. Lowry“courts have recognized repeatedly that the creative decisions involved in producing a photograph may render it sufficiently original to be copyrightable and `have carefully delineated selection of subject, posture, background, lighting, and perhaps even perspective alone as protectable elements of a photographer's work.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. No. 98-17072
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.