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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Patent Panacea?: The Promise Of Corbinized Claim Construction, Jonathan L. Moore
A Patent Panacea?: The Promise Of Corbinized Claim Construction, Jonathan L. Moore
Law Student Publications
A patent's claims define the scope of a patent-holder's right to exclude others. Because patent infringement actions often hinge on how a court construes claim terms, the interpretative approach that a court uses has a significant effect on the scope ofpatent rights. This article examines claim construction through the lens of contract law. In theory, the Federal Circuit has explicitly rejected the application of contract interpretation principles to claim construction, despite historical acceptance of the patent-contract analogy. In practice, however, the Federal Circuit applies the theory of contract interpretation espoused by Samuel Williston, a theory that focuses on the text …
Toward A Prudential And Credibility-Centered Parol Evidence Rule, Lawrence A. Cunningham
Toward A Prudential And Credibility-Centered Parol Evidence Rule, Lawrence A. Cunningham
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
The most influential judicial voices on the parol evidence rule are Roger Traynor and Richard Posner. Traynor pieced together aspects of positions championed by the antipodal titans of contracts, Arthur Corbin and Samuel Williston. Posner cuts through tangled doctrinal webs to show how the unifying talisman of the doctrine is credibility. Everything in parol evidence rule doctrine, in this formulation, can be understood in terms of two categories of evidence: subjective and objective. While the Traynor composite blended aspects of the titans of contracts into an incoherent stew, the Posner composite unites the central theme of the titans' positions, holding …
Hermeneutics And Contract Default Rules: An Essay On Lieber And Corbin, Lawrence A. Cunningham
Hermeneutics And Contract Default Rules: An Essay On Lieber And Corbin, Lawrence A. Cunningham
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
The most provocative debate in contemporary contract law scholarship concerns default rule analysis or the manner in which courts fill gaps in incomplete contracts. The nineteenth-century scholar Francis Lieber elaborated a comprehensive solution to the default rules puzzle by first distinguishing the judicial acts of contract interpretation and construction, and then by developing principles of construction with which to choose default rules. Arthur Corbin knew about Lieber's enterprise, but, in his treatise on contracts, dismissed Lieber's distinction and never explored the rest of Lieber's hermeneutics. Had Corbin addressed Lieber, much of the professorial energy expended in the prevailing default rules …