Perma Research & Development v. The Singer Company

The District Judge has held the defendant liable for seven million dollars in damages because, he said, defendant breached an implied promise to perfect and market plaintiff’s invention. Because I am convinced that both the decision and the manner in which it was reached were clearly erroneous, I dissent.

Although there has been ample judicial discussion of the difference between obligations implied in fact and those implied in law,1 this distinction remains blurred in many decisions. Regardless of terminology, however, one thing is clear. An obligation, implied either in fact or in law, is…