Under current law, the validity of a patent can depend on whether it reaches the Federal Circuit from a district court decision or from the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, rather than on a consistent measure of the merits of the invention. To interpret the claim one way for validity in the courts and another for validity in an inter partes review violates a fundamental principle of patent law: A claim in a patent cannot, the U.S. Supreme Court once ruled, be treated “like a nose of wax which may be turned and twisted in any direction.” White v. Dunbar (1886).