PRIVITY, Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)
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`Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019), privity
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`PRIVITY
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`Bryan A. Garner, Editor in Chief
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`Preface | Guide | Legal Maxims | Bibliography
`privity (priv-ə-tee) (16c) 1. The connection or relationship between two parties, each having a legally recognized interest in
`the same subject matter (such as a transaction, proceeding, or piece of property); mutuality of interest <privity of contract>.
`- horizontal privity. (1968) Commercial law. The legal relationship between a party and a nonparty who is related to the party
`(such as a buyer and a member of the buyer's family).
`- privity of blood. (16c) 1. Privity between an heir and an ancestor. 2. Privity between coparceners.
`- privity of contract. (17c) The relationship between the parties to a contract, allowing them to sue each other but preventing a
`third party from doing so. • The requirement of privity has been relaxed under modern laws and doctrines of implied warranty
`and strict liability, which allow a third-party beneficiary or other foreseeable user to sue the seller of a defective product.
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`“To many students and practitioners of the common law privity of contract became a fetish. As such, it
`operated to deprive many a claimant of a remedy in cases where according to the mores of the time the claim
`was just. It has made many learned men believe that a chose in action could not be assigned. Even now, it
`is gravely asserted that a man cannot be made the debtor of another against his will. But the common law
`was gradually influenced by equity and by the law merchant, so that by assignment a debtor could become
`bound to pay a perfect stranger to himself, although until the legislature stepped in, the common-law courts
`characteristically made use of a fiction and pretended that they were not doing that which they really were
`doing.” William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 335 (Arthur L. Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919).
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`“It is an elementary principle of English law — known as the doctrine of ‘Privity of Contract’ — that
`contractual rights and duties only affect the parties to a contract, and this principle is the distinguishing
`feature between the law of contract and the law of property. True proprietary rights are ‘binding on the
`world’ in the lawyer's traditional phrase. Contractual rights, on the other hand, are only binding on, and
`enforceable by, the immediate parties to the contract. But this distinction, fundamental though it be, wears a
`little thin at times. On the one hand, there has been a constant tendency for contractual rights to be extended
`in their scope so as to affect more and more persons who cannot be regarded as parties to the transaction.
`On the other hand, few proprietary rights are literally ‘binding on the world.’” P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction
`to the Law of Contract 265 (3d ed. 1981).
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`“The doctrine of privity means that a person cannot acquire rights or be subject to liabilities arising under
`a contract to which he is not a party. It does not mean that a contract between A and B cannot affect the
`legal rights of C indirectly.” G.H. Treitel, The Law of Contract 538 (8th ed. 1991).
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`- privity of estate. (17c) A mutual or successive relationship to the same right in property, as between grantor and grantee or
`landlord and tenant. — Also termed privity of title; privity in estate.
`- privity of possession. (1818) Privity between parties in successive possession of real property. • The existence of this type
`of privity is often at issue in adverse-possession claims.
`- privity of title. See privity of estate.
`- vertical privity. (1968) 1. Commercial law. The legal relationship between parties in a product's chain of distribution (such
`as a manufacturer and a seller). 2. Privity between one who signs a contract containing a restrictive covenant and one who
`acquires the property burdened by it.
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` © 2023 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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`Greenthread Ex 2002, p.1 of 2
`Cirrus Logic, et. al. v. Greenthread
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`PRIVITY, Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)
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`2. Joint knowledge or awareness of something private or secret, esp. as implying concurrence or consent <privity to a crime>.
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`Westlaw. © 2019 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works.
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`End of Document
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`© 2023 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
`
` © 2023 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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`2
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`Greenthread Ex 2002, p.2 of 2
`Cirrus Logic, et. al. v. Greenthread
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