Here's a case from December 2020 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal circuit. Here's a map of the circuits.
This case is called BRACCO DIAGNOSTICS INC. v MAIA PHARMACEUTICALS, INC and is an appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
This is a patent infringement case that involves chemistry and is way too technical for me. Blog readers who have a science or chemistry background will undoubtedly understand these arguments much more than I do. But what I find interesting is that the court interpreted the meaning of a backslash / [I always thought / was a forward slash and \ was a backslash, but that distinction doesn't appear relevant to the court's opinion.]
Maia stated the / meant "and." Bracco stated it meant "and" or "or." The court analyzed the use of the / in the patent application and various tables and charts within that application. The court then concluded - We agree with Bracco that the district court correctly construed the backslash in surfactant/solubilizer to mean “and” or “or.”
In another case, a court analyzed the effect of the lack of an Oxford comma and determined that no Oxford comma meant one party owed $5 million!
Now we have the interpretation of / as a determining factor in a court's ruling.
Grammar, spelling, and punctuation matter!
I had heard of the Oxford comma ruling before, but not the / case. I always thought / meant "and". I think the Oxford comma issue was a little easier to understand than this one!
ReplyDeleteThe Oxford comma case was definitely easier to understand than this case!
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