420 U.S. 376
Supreme Court of the United States
February 25, 1975
Supreme Court of the United States · decided February 25, 1975
Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States, 487 F.2d 1345 (Ct. Cl. 1973), was an important intellectual property decision by the federal Court of Claims, later affirmed by a per curiam opinion from an evenly divided United States Supreme Court, with only eight justices voting (Harry Blackmun took no part in the decision of this case). The decision held that it was a fair use for libraries to photocopy articles for use by patrons engaged in scientific research.
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Affirmed · 4–4 · Opinion by Per Curiam · Decided February 25, 1975
Cited by 159 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2011 · most notably United States v. Brignoni-Ponce (1975), Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc (1984)
71 federal appellate · 18 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.
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Alan Latman, New York City, for petitioner.
Sol. Gen. Robert H. Bork, for respondent.
On writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Claims.
PER CURIAM.
The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court.
Mr. Justice BLACKMUN took no part in the decision of this case.