A novel defense based on diminished capacity attributed to stress or impairment. • The phrase derives from the fact that the defense is tailored to the defendant and the circumstances of the crime. Examples include extraordinary reactions to snack food (the Twinkie defense), unconsciousness or sleepwalking, and postpartum psychosis. See AUTOMATISM.
Patent Roll. A list of the letters patent issued in the United Kingdom in any given year. • The first Patent Roll was issued in England in 1201. The Rolls were originally used to grant offices, lands, licenses, peerages, and pensions. In later centuries, the Patent Rolls included grants of patents for inventions.
deemed transferor. Tax. A person who holds an interest in a generation-skipping trust on behalf of a beneficiary, and whose death will trigger the imposition of a generation-skipping transfer tax. • A deemed transferor is often a child of the settlor. For example, a grandfather could establish a trust with income payable for life to
Tennessee Valley Authority. A government-owned corporation, created in 1933, that conducts a unified program of resource development to advance economic growth in the Tennessee Valley region. • The Authority’s activities include flood control, navigation development, electric-power production, fertilizer development, recreation improvement, and forestry-and-wildlife development. Though its power program is financially self-supporting, the Authority’s other programs
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security agreement. An agreement that creates or provides for an interest in specified real or personal property to guarantee the performance of an obligation. • It must provide for a security interest, describe the collateral, and be signed by the debtor. The agreement may include other important covenants and warranties. [Cases: Secured Transactions 41–51. C.J.S.
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A term sheet that includes (1) the description of the securities as required by Item 202 of SEC Regulation S–K, or a good summary of that information; and (2) all material changes to the issuer’s affairs required to be disclosed on SEC Form S–3 or F–3, as applicable.
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An interest-bearing account whose earnings are not taxable as income to the account holder before the earnings are withdrawn. • Tax-deferred accounts include most types of IRAs, variable annuities, 401(k) plans, cash-value life insurance, and most other types of tax-deferred savings instruments.
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leges barbarorum (lee-jeez bahr-b[schwa]-ror-[schwa]m). [Latin “laws of the barbarians”] Hist. The customary laws of medieval European law; esp., the customary laws of Germanic tribes during the Middle Ages. • These include the lex romana Visigothorum, the lex Burgundionum, and the lex Salica. — Also termed folk laws. See SALIC LAW. “Many of the conquering Germanic
A type of claim in a patent application that includes multiple limitations, at least one of which is in means-plus-function or step-plus-function form. • Means-combination claims are acceptable to examiners. [Cases: Patents 101(10).]
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loanland. Hist. A tenancy involving the loan of land by one person to another. — Also spelled laenland. Cf. BOOKLAND; FOLKLAND. “Laenlands were loaned lands, that is, lands granted for a period, either the life of the grantee or some longer time such as three lives. In return the grantees performed services, usually of an