In Re James T Hamilton’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
4 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently March 2012
4 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
Relies on Vandygriff v. Phillips · Hannahville Indian Community v. United States · Elizabeth v. Pavement Co. · TP Laboratories, Inc. v. Professional Positioners, Inc. · In Re James A. Smith and James H. McLaughlin and Sterling Drug, Inc., Intervenor
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The experimental use doctrine operates in the inventor's favor to allow the inventor to refine his invention or to assess its value relative to the time and expense of prosecuting a patent application. If it is not the inventor or someone under his control or 'surveillance' who does these things, there appears to us no reason why he should be entitled to rely upon them to avoid the statute.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“such use is not a public use, within the meaning of the statute, so long as the inventor is engaged, in good faith, in testing its operation. He may see cause to alter it and improve it, or not. His experiments will reveal the fact whether any and what alterations may be necessary. If durability is one of the qualities to be attained, a long period, perhaps years, may be necessary to enable the inventor to discover whether his purpose is accomplished. And though, during all that period, he may not find that any changes are necessary, yet he may be justly said to be using his [invention] only by way of experiment; and no one would say that such a use, pursued with a bona fide intent of testing the qualities of the [invention], would be a public use, within the meaning of the statute. So long as he does not voluntarily allow others to make it and use it, and so long as it is not on sale for general use, he keeps the invention under his own control, and does not lose his title to a patent.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The Supreme Court [in City of Elizabeth ] has indicated that for an assertion of experimental use to have merit, it must be clear that the inventor kept control over his invention in the course of its testing.”
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.