"[2] The adage is not literally true, that by law the person in possession is presumed to have a nine times stronger claim than anyone else, but that "it places in a strong light the legal truth that every claimant must succeed by the strength of his own title, and not by the weakness of his antagonist's.
"[3] The principle bears some similarity to uti possidetis ("as you possess, so may you continue to possess"), which currently refers to the doctrine that colonial administrative boundaries become international boundaries when a political subdivision or colony achieves independence.
[6] While the concept is older, the phrase "Possession is nine-tenths of the law" is often claimed to date from the 16th century.
[7] In some countries, possession is not nine-tenths of the law, but rather the onus is on the possessor to substantiate his ownership.
[10] Google's possession of a large amount of content has been the cause of some wariness due to this principle.