arising under
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 241 U.S. 257 - American Well Works Company v. Layne & Bowler Company E · 1916Most cited · 1,388 citing opinions
federal question jurisdiction
A suit for damages to business caused by a threat to sue under the patent law is not itself a suit under the patent law. And the same is true when the damage is caused by a statement of fact,—that the defendant has a patent which is infringed. What makes the defendants' act a wrong is its manifest tendency to injure the plaintiff's business; and the wrong is the same whatever the means by which it is accomplished. But whether it is a wrong or not depends upon the law of the state where the act is done, not upon the patent law, and therefore the suit arises under the law of the state. A suit arises under the law that creates the cause of action.
How often courts cite the cases defining “arising under”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “arising under” — 1,628 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1916–1942
Whether a suit arises under a law of the United States must appear from the plaintiff's pleading, not the defenses which may be interposed to, or be anticipated by it.