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85 Notre Dame L. Rev. 621 (2009-2010)
The Teaching Function of Patents

handle is hein.journals/tndl85 and id is 625 raw text is: THE TEACHING FUNCTION OF PATENTS Sean B. Seymore* In theory, a patent serves the public good because the disclosure of the invention brings new ideas and technologies to the public and induces inventive activity. But while these roles inherently depend on the ability of the patent to disseminate technical knowledge, the teaching function of pat- ents has received very little attention. Indeed, when the document publishes, it can serve as a form of technical literature. Because patents can, at times, communicate knowledge as well as, or better than, other information sources, patents could become a competitive source of technical information. Pres- ently, however, patents are rarely viewed in this manner. There are several reasons for this, including the lack of a working example requirement and the pervasive use of ambiguous or opaque language. My primary objective is to transform patents into readable teaching doc- uments. Importantly, if patents are to compete with the technical literature, then they must provide the same quality of teaching. For this to happen, two things must occur. First, at least for complex inventions, an applicant must prove, through adequate detail, that the claimed invention has been con- structed and works for its intended purpose. Second, applicants must be allowed to draft the document using clear and concise language, without the fear of litigation troubles. To achieve both, I contend that working examples should replace language as the principal measure of claim scope. To imple- ment this idea, I propose a new examination protocol which gives the U.S. Patent Office the ability to request working examples when the disclosure's teaching appears dubious. In exploring criticisms, I argue that, in contrast @ 2010 Sean B. Seymore. Individuals and nonprofit institutions may reproduce and distribute copies of this Article in any format, at or below cost, for educational purposes, so long as each copy identifies the author, provides a citation to the Notre Dame Law Review, and includes this provision and copyright notice. * Assistant Professor of Law and Alumni Faculty Fellow, Washington & Lee University School of Law; J.D., University of Notre Dame, 2006; Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Notre Dame, 2001; M.S.Chem., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996; B.S., University of Tennessee, 1993. Thanks to Eric Goldman, Cynthia Ho, Timothy Holbrook, Joseph Miller, Craig Nard, David Olson, Michael Risch, and Matthew Sag for their helpful comments and criticisms on earlier drafts of this Article. I also extend special thanks to Katherine Strandburg for inviting me to present this Article as an Edward D. Manzo Scholar in Patent Law at DePaul University College of Law. Finally, I thank the Frances Lewis Law Center at Washington & Lee for its support of this project through a research grant. 621

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