Reckendorfer v. Faber’s Empirical Analysis
92 U.S. 347 · 1875
Citation profile
184 federal appellate · 82 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 493 later decisions (31 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2017 · most notably Graham v. John Deere Company of Kansas City Calmar Inc (1966), Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. (1950)
184 federal appellate · 82 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.
Relationships
Relies on Seymour v. Osborne · Julia Hotchkiss Executrix of John Hotchkiss Deceased John Davenport and John Quincy v. Miles Greenwood · Hailes v. Van Wormer · Hicks v. Kelsey
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 493 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The combination, to be patentable, must produce a different force or effect, or result in the combined forces or processes, from that given by their separate parts. There must be a new result produced by their union; if not so, it is only an aggregation of separate elements.””
31 later decisions quote this exact passage““Another illustration may be found in the frame in a sawmill which advances the log regularly tó meet the saw, and the saw which saws the log; the two co-operate and are simultaneous in their joint action of sawing through the whole log, — or in the sewing-machine, where one part advances the cloth, and another part forms the stitches; the action being simultaneous in carrying on a continuous sewing. A stem-winding watch key is another instance. The office of the stem is to hold the watch, or hang the chain to the watch. The office of the key is to wind it. When the stem is made the key, the joint duty of. holding the chain and winding the watch is performed by the same instrument. ' A double effect is produced, or a double duty-performed, by the combined result. In these and numerous like eases the parts co-operate in producing the final effect, — sometimes simultaneously, sometimes successively. The result comes from the combined effect of the several parts, not simply from the separate action of each, and is therefore patentable.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The decision of the Commissioner of Patents in the allowance and issue of a patent creates a prima, facie right only; and, upon all the questions involved therein, the validity of the patent is subject to examination by the courts.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.