Caselaw

Miscellaneous Appeal – Civil (Tel Aviv) 33353-05-23 Dr. Stephen L. Thaler v. Registrar of Patents, Designs and Trademarks - part 12

December 31, 2025
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"It is not possible to understand the meaning of a term and interpret it except in the context of its words.  The matter changes, even the meaning of a term can change" (Criminal Appeal 146/64 Attorney General v. Salameh, IsrSC 18(4) 501 (December 9, 1964), at p. 504).  In the words of Justice Sussman, to whom many refer to: "Speech that is enacted is a creature that lives in its environment.  It derives its character from the context of things [...]" (High Court of Justice 58/68 Shalit v. Minister of the Interior, IsrSC 23(2) 477 (January 23, 1970), paragraph 14 of its judgment).

  1. The Linguistic Context[4] of expression is the law that is interpreted.

"A great rule is that every law should be interpreted [...] As one complete division [...] 'The most natural and correct interpretation of a law is to interpret one part of it by another part of the same law, because this best expresses the intention of the legislator.'" (Civil Appeal 7909/16 Metal Fencing in Tax Appeal v. Regional Commissioner - Customs and Tax  Appeal Department (April 26, 2018), section 23, quoting the words of Justice H. Cohen in Criminal Appeal 428/74 Dadash v. Jerusalem Municipality, IsrSC 29(2) 23 (March 4, 1975), which in turn include a translated excerpt from English law).  "In dealing with interpretation, we present ourselves with this question: What does this particular term mean in the legislation we are discussing, in the context in which it stands?" (Criminal Appeal 94/65 Turgeman v. Attorney General, IsrSC 19(3) 57 (September 9, 1965), p. 80).  See also the Clement case, pp. 43-45.

  1. We deal with patent law. The term "inventor" is not defined in it, but appears in a number of its instructions.

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There are provisions in the Patent Law that relate to the "remnants" of an inventor:

"An inventor for whose invention a patent has been requested, or his survivors, may demand that the inventor's name be noted in detail, in the register and in the patent certificate,..." (Section 39 of the Law).

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