# Miscellaneous specific-domain legal doctrines Correlative rights doctrine (property law) - landowners' rights to a common source of water (and oil and gas in some US states) is shared proportionally to the size of them and their neighbors' land Equivalents doctrine (patent law) - a court can hold a party liable for patent infringement when the infringing device doesn't fall within the literal scope of a patent claim but is still equivalent to the claimed invention Fair abridgment (copyright law) - aka "fair use" or "fair dealing", a copyrighted work is free for use in specific situations like parody, non-commercial use, and education Implied license (intellectual property law) - a licensee is allowed to do something that would normally require the express permission of the licensor if the licensor's actions lead the licensee to believe they have permission Inevitable disclosure (intellectual property law) - an employer can claim a trade secret without needing proof or evidence to prevent a former employee from working a job that may result in using trade secrets Internal affairs doctrine (corporations law) - aka "lex incorporationis", the "internal affairs" of a corporation will be governed by the corporate statutes and case law of the state the corporation is incorporated in Last injurious exposure rule (employment law) - when an occupational disease was potentially caused by a succession of jobs, the most recent employer with the risk exposure is liable nemo dat quod non habet (contract law) - Latin for "no one can give what they do not have", the purchase of a possession from someone who doesn't have it also denies the purchaser any title to ownership Nondelegation principle - aka "nondelegation doctrine", one branch of government must not authorize another entity to exercise the power or function it already has for itself Open mines doctrine (property law) - depletion of nonrenewable natural resources is considered waste unless consuming those resources constitutes normal use of the land Polluter pays principle (environmental law) - the party responsible for producing pollution must pay for the damage done to the natural environment Rule in Shelley's Case (trust law) - if a person gives an inheritance to their next of kin and the remainder to their grandchildren underneath that, the next of kin technically has all of it Scène à faire (copyright law) - French for "scene that must be done", when a scene in a created work is almost required for that genre, certain elements of it are not protected by copyright (e.g., homeless people in a poor part of a city) ## USA Absolute priority (bankruptcy court) - aka "liquidation preference", there's an order to who gets paid in a bankruptcy: (1) debts to creditors (2) shareholders divide any remaining assets, with secured claims taking precedence over unsecured claims Assignment of income doctrine (tax law) - each entity's income must be their own for tax purposes Boulevard rule (traffic court) - a driver of a vehicle entering a highway from a smaller road or entrance ("unfavored") must stop and yield the right of way to all highway ("favored") drivers Cash equivalence doctrine (tax law) - certain non-cash payment transactions are treated Economic substance (tax law) - a transaction must have a substantial purpose aside from reducing tax liability and an economic effect aside from the tax effect to qualify for any tax benefits Essential facilities doctrine - a monopoly that owns a facility essential to its competitors must provide reasonable use of it Exhausted combination doctrine (patent law) - aka "doctrine of the Lincoln Engineering case", when an inventor invents a new, non-obvious device and tries to patent the new device *and* the combination of that new device with a known, conventional device it interacts with in a mundane way, that combination can't be patented as well Functionality doctrine (trademark law) - manufacturers can't protect specific uses of a product with trademark law, since that's a patent issue First-sale doctrine (intellectual property law) - aka "exhaustion doctrine", an intellectual property holder can control resale of products embodying its intellectual property, but the intellectual property is "exhausted" after a point Foreign equivalents doctrine (trademark law) - courts and the TTAB must translate foreign words into English to determine if they can be registered as trademarks Idea-expression distinction (copyright law) - the idea of a thing is different from the expression or manifestation of that idea Illinois Brick doctrine (antitrust law) - indirect purchasers of goods and services along a supply chain cannot seek damages for antitrust violations committed by the original manufacturer or service provider, though direct purchasers can Inherency doctrine (patent law) - prior art may be relied on not only for what it expressly teaches, but for what flows from the express teachings, and a patent can be filed for a new and non-obvious [symbolic representation](symbols.md) Market share liability (corporate law) - a plaintiff can establish an initial case against a group of product manufacturers for injury caused by a product, even when the plaintiff doesn't know which defendant the product originated Medical necessity (medical law) - a government is lawfully permitted to pay for activities deemed reasonable, necessary, or appropriate Nominative use (trademark law) - aka "nominative fair use", a person may use the trademark of another as a reference to describe the other product or compare it to their own Perfect tender rule (contract law) - if the "perfect tender" of a good fails in any capacity, a buyer is entitled to reject or accept all the goods, or reject the nonconforming part, but can't reject the goods outright in its entirety Repair and reconstruction doctrine (patent law) - there is a difference between repairing (the right of an owner of property to preserve the function of a thing) and reconstruction (combining unpatented elements into a patented product) Reverse doctrine of equivalents (patent law) - a device that appears to literally infringe a patent claim by having similar elements or limitations does *not* infringe it if it operates on a different principle Rule of reason (antitrust law) - monopolies are only considered illegal when they're unreasonably restraining trade Step transaction doctrine (tax law) - formally separate steps are a single, integrated event for tax purposes, designed to prevent tax abuse (e.g., tax shelters, bailing assets out of a corporation) Sufficient similarity (EPA environmental law) - a chemical sample with an unknown toxicity must be treated with the same safety requirements as a similar chemical sample with a known toxicity Tea Rose - Rectanus doctrine (trademark law) - the junior user of a trademark who is geographically remote from the senior user can have priority in their geographical area Volcker Rule (securities law) - banks aren't allowed to use their accounts to make certain speculative investments ## UK Maxwellisation (trade law) - people who are to be criticized in an official report must be given notice and able to respond to the details of that criticism ## Netherlands Spider in the web doctrine (patent law) - the Dutch courts only assume jurisdiction where the main defendant (the "spider") is located in the Netherlands and the other defendants were part of a group of companies and acted on a common business policy of the group (the "web")