[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] began its last oral argument session on Monday with two cases.

At issue [SCOTUSblog materials] in the first case, Wisconsin Central Ltd. v. United States [transcript, PDF] is whether stocks given to employees by a railroad is taxable as money under the federal Railroad Retirement Tax Act. The attorney for the petitioner, Wisconsin Central Ltd., argued that stock is not money under a generally accepted definition of money as a “generally accepted medium of exchange.” Most of the questions concerned the definition of medium of exchange. The attorney for the respondent argued that the statue covers more than just cash and cited several examples of non-cash benefits that are taxed.

In the second case, WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp. [transcript, PDF] the court will decide [SCOTUSblog materials] whether a patent-holder is entitled to lost profits when an infringer transports and assembles parts of a product in a way that violates a patent. The attorney for the petitioner argued that the lost profits are the “reasonably foreseeable result of domestic infringement.” When the attorney for the respondent spoke, most of the questions concerned the presumption of territoriality, or the idea that US laws do not have reach outside of US jurisdiction unless otherwise stated.