Corpus Linguistics at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

This Article examines the intersection of corpus linguistics and patent law. It introduces the foundations of corpus linguistics and its application to the law and advances the potential for its application to patent examination at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Historically, the disciplines of corpus linguistics and patent law did not intersect until scholars began to consider the application of corpus linguistics to patent litigation for interpretation of terms in patent claims. Interpretation of legal language provided by corpus linguistics and applied to patent examination at the USPTO has yet to be addressed and is a novel application of a unique case study. As proponents and critics of corpus linguistics continue to debate its benefits and challenges, patent examination at the USPTO presents an opportunity to test its application. Scholars have frequently utilized patent data to assess economic, empirical, and statistical hypotheses. Similarly, the historical records pertaining to patents (as well as databases of other prior art) can serve as a basis for a study based on the application of corpus linguistics at the USPTO. Turning to the normative, this Article concludes with proposed reforms to patent examination based on corpus linguistics and research questions for future studies.