Legal Definitions - adoption by reference

Adoption by reference is a legal term that refers to the process of making a secondary document part of a primary document by including a statement in the primary document that the secondary document should be treated as if it were contained within the primary one. This is also known as incorporation by reference.

One example of adoption by reference is with contracts. If a contract refers to another document, such as a set of terms and conditions, and includes a statement that the terms and conditions should be treated as if they were part of the contract, then the terms and conditions are considered to be incorporated by reference into the contract.

Another example is with patents. If a patent application includes information that is already contained in another document, such as another patent or patent application, then the information can be incorporated by reference into the patent application.

Adoption by reference is a way to make a document more concise and clear by referring to another document that contains relevant information. This can be useful in legal documents, such as contracts and patents, where there may be a lot of information to include. By incorporating information by reference, the document can be shorter and easier to understand.