Substance over form
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 265 U.S. 242 - Weiss v. Stearn · 1924Most cited · 556 citing opinions
taxation
Questions of taxation must be determined by viewing what was actually done, rather than the declared purpose of the participants, and when applying the provisions of the Sixteenth Amendment and income laws enacted thereunder we must regard matters of substance and not mere form.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Substance over form”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “Substance over form” — 1,096 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 · 1853–1924
- ORIGINAL
Where form and substance are inseparable, it is enough to look at the form only. Where they are separable; where the whole substance of the invention may be copied in a different form, it is the duty of courts and juries to look through the form for the substance of the invention—for that which entitled the inventor to his patent, and which the patent was designed to secure; where that is found, there is an infringement; and it is not a defence, that it is embodied in a form not described, and in terms claimed by the patentee.
patent claim construction