Tyler v. Boston’s Empirical Analysis
74 U.S. 327 · 1868
Citation profile
33 federal appellate · 15 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 82 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2005 · most notably Holland Furniture Co. v. Perkins Glue Co. (1928), Consolidated Electric Light Co v. McKeesport Light Co (1895)
33 federal appellate · 15 district · 2 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.
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 82 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Now a machine which consists of a combination of devices is a subject of invention, and its effects may be calculated a priori, while a discovery of a new substance by means of chemical combinations of known materials is empirical and discovered by experiment. Where a patent is claimed for such a discovery, it should state the component parts of the new manufacture claimed with clearness and precision, and not leave the person attempting to use the discovery to find it out ‘by experiment/ ””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“. “This term ‘equivalent,’ when speaking of machines, has a certain definite meaning, but when used with regard to the chemical action of such fluids as can be discovered only by experiment, it only means equally good.””
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.