Article Summary and Reaction Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Article Summary and Reaction Paper - Essay Example Marvels claim was that its obligations to pay royalty for the patent ceases when the patent expires. Marvel relied on an earlier Supreme Court decision in Brullote v Thys Co., which found that agreements are not enforceable when patents expire. Mr. Kimble asked the court to overrule its previous decision (Kendall, 2015). The principles of stare decisis provide that courts should adhere to previous precedents of earlier cases. Stare decisis is an important aspect of a common law system and follows that once a court answers a question, subsequent questions to the court should be answered in a similar manner (Anderlini, Felli, & Riboni, 2014). The courts should seek to follow precedents to maintain the stability of the law. The courts should rarely overrule its precedents unless there are strong reasons because doing so sets a new interpretation of a legal issue (Waldron, 2012). In the current case, the court considered overruling the precedent established in Brullote v Thys Co. The article showed that the doctrine of stare decisis is binding on subsequent decisions by the court and that a court may only overrule its precedent if there are good reasons to do