Cliffs Notes, Inc. v. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
886 F.2d 490 · 1989
Citation profile
30 federal appellate · 4 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 99 later decisions — most recently April 2024 · most notably Twin Peaks Productions, Inc. v. Publications International, Ltd. (1993), Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. v. Capece (1998)
30 federal appellate · 4 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 Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc. · Glidden Company v. Zdanok Et Al. · Douglas v. Alabama · Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell · Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n
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 99 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A parody must convey two simultaneous--and contradictory--messages: that it is the original, but also that it is not the original and is instead a parody.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[O]nly where the public interest in avoiding consumer confusion outweighs the public interest in free expression”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the Rogers balancing approach is generally applicable to Lanham Act claims against works of artistic expression, a category that includes parody. This approach takes into account the ultimate test in trademark law, namely, the likelihood of confusion as to source of the goods in question. " Id. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted; emphasis added). In a footnote, the court explained that where the challenged work is one involving artistic expression, "the Polaroid factors [the eight-factor test] should be applied with proper weight given to First Amendment considerations....”
2 later decisions 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.