Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co.’s Empirical Analysis
746 F.2d 112 · 1984
Citation profile
49 federal appellate · 11 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 217 later decisions — most recently May 2018 · most notably Lang v. Retirement Living Publishing Co. (1991), Thompson Medical Co. v. Pfizer Inc. (1985)
49 federal appellate · 11 district · 3 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 15 U.S.C. § 1125 (§ 43 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act))
Relies on United States v. Diebold, Inc. · Curtiss-Wright Corporation v. General Electric Company · Glidden Company v. Zdanok Et Al. · Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n · Heyman v. Commerce & Industry Insurance
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 217 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““To the best of your knowledge, was the Donkey Kong game made with the approval or under the authority of the people who produce the King Kong movies?””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“if the court is satisfied that the . . . marks are so dissimilar that no question of fact is presented.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““... the above-mentioned inquiry was an obvious leading question in that it suggested its own answer. The participants were presented with the Donkey Kong-King Kong connection rather than permitted to make their own associations. When the participants were asked ‘As far as you know, who makes Donkey Kong?” not one suggested Universal or the makers of the King Kong movies.” 746 F.2d at 118 .”
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.