Open anseljh opened 8 years ago
Setting aside the legal issue---and I'd prefer not to specialize this data file to legal English---I'm not sure that "to" is always an equivalent substitute for "in or to".
The legal usage you gave follows a noun, which strongly implies the prepositions mean different things to the author. But I imagine "in or to" comes up more often when "to" is part of an infinitive. Consider:
Have you decided whether to eat in or to go out?
I suspect it may also come up in parallel constructions with verbs that govern "in" and "to" as prepositions, in that order, but no example came easily to mind.
On the legal side, I'm not aware of any specific case law giving a "term of art" meaning to either of the two prepositions in any IP context. I doubt a court would inject a distinction from outside the four corners of an agreement. Of course, you could get into trouble using "in and to" one place and just either "in" or "to" somewhere else.
FWIW, I'm used to seeing "in or to" in a slightly longer phrase than you quoted:
.. no right, title, or interest in or to the IP ...
Since the nouns there govern different prepositions, you "need" both prepositions for correctness: "to" for "title" and "in" for "interest". Listing out the permutations:
Noun | Preposition | Complement | Correct? |
---|---|---|---|
Right | In | the IP | ☑ |
Right | To | the IP | ☑ |
Title | In | the IP | ☒ |
Title | To | the IP | ☑ |
Interest | In | the IP | ☑ |
Interest | To | the IP | ☒ |
All good points. I'll ponder.
This PR adds "in or to", suggesting instead simply "to".
This comes up in IP licensing pretty often. For example:
I don't think Ken Adams has addressed this one, although I may have missed it.
Any thoughts, @kemitchell? Are you aware of any valid legal reason for using "in or to" over "to"?