Using AI to Analyze Patent Claim Indefiniteness

We describe how to use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to partially automate a type of legal analysis, determining whether a patent claim satisfies the definiteness requirement. Although fully automating such a high-level cognitive task is well beyond state-of-the-art AI, we show that AI can nevertheless assist the decision maker in making this determination. Specifically, the use of custom AI technology can aid the decision maker by (1) mining patent text to rapidly bring relevant information to the decision maker’s attention, and (2) suggesting simple inferences that can be drawn from that information. We begin by summarizing the law related to patent claim indefiniteness. A summary of existing case law allows us to identify the types of information that can be relevant to the legal determination of indefiniteness. This in turn guides us in designing AI software that processes a patent’s text to extract information that can be relevant to the legal analysis of indefiniteness. Some types of relevant information include whether terms in a claim are defined in the patent, whether terms in a claim are not mentioned in the patent’s specification, whether the claim includes non-standard terms coined by the drafter of the patent, whether the claim relies on vaguely-specified measurements, and whether the patent’s specification discloses structure corresponding to a means-plus-function limitation. The AI software rapidly processes a patent’s text and identifies information that is relevant to the legal analysis. The software then provides the human decision maker with this information as well as simple metrics and inferences, such as the percentage of claim terms that are defined explicitly or by example, and whether terms that are coined by the drafter should be defined or renamed. This can provide the user with insights about a patent much faster than if the user read the entirety of the patent to locate the same information unaided. Moreover, the software can aggregate the various types of information to “score” a claim (e.g., from 0 to 100) based on its risk of being deemed indefinite. For example, a claim containing only defined terms and lacking any vague measurements would score much lower in terms of risk than a claim with terms that are not only undefined but do not even appear in the patent’s specification. Once each claim in a patent is assigned such an indefiniteness score, the patent itself can be given an overall indefiniteness score. Scoring groups of patents in this manner has further advantages even if the scores are blunt measurements. AI software ranks a group of patents (e.g., all patents owned by a company) by indefiniteness scores. This allows a very large set of patents to be quickly searched for patents that have the highest, or lowest, indefiniteness score. The results of such a search could be, e.g., the patents to target for detailed review in litigation, post-grant proceedings, or licensing negotiations. Finally, we present some considerations for refining and augmenting the proposed methods for partially automating the indefiniteness analysis, and more broadly other types of legal analysis

Using artificial intelligence to increase access to justice

L'intelligence artificielle est l'un des domaines les plus florissants et les plus passionnants de la recherche et de l'industrie. Au cours des dernières années, les approches utilisant l'apprentissage profond ont permis de nombreuses avancées dans divers domaines, notamment la vision par ordinateur, la traduction automatique, la reconnaissance et la génération d'images, ainsi que la compréhension et la génération de textes (tels que GPT-4). Dans cette thèse, je cherche à savoir si et comment l'intelligence artificielle peut être utilisée pour améliorer l'accès à la justice et à l'information juridique pour les justiciables. Le citoyen moyen est souvent dépassé et impuissant lorsqu'il est confronté à des problèmes juridiques. Il peut avoir du mal à comprendre comment la loi s'applique à sa situation et à utiliser le système juridique pour résoudre son problème, même s'il est conscient de ses droits. En conséquence, leurs problèmes restent irrésolus ou ils ne profitent pas des possibilités qui leur sont offertes. C'est pourquoi j'ai développé et mis en œuvre la méthodologie "JusticeBot", qui utilise l'IA pour aider les justiciables à résoudre leurs problèmes juridiques. Les outils qui en résultent utilisent une approche hybride de raisonnement basée sur des règles et des cas pour poser à l'utilisateur des questions pertinentes, analyser sa situation juridique et lui fournir des informations juridiques appropriées ainsi que des cas antérieurs similaires liés à son problème juridique particulier. L'utilisateur peut utiliser ces informations pour négocier une solution mutuellement acceptable ou pour naviguer dans le processus juridique ardu. JusticeBot est donc un outil d'intelligence augmentée, qui améliore le niveau de connaissance de l'utilisateur pour l'aider à résoudre ses problèmes juridiques. Je décris la méthodologie globale et la manière dont je l'ai mise en œuvre dans des outils logiciels, par exemple le "JusticeCreator", une interface permettant de créer et de mettre à jour les outils JusticeBot. Je présente également un outil JusticeBot déployé dans le domaine des litiges entre propriétaires et locataires, qui est accessible au public à l'adresse https://justicebot.ca. Cet outil a été utilisé plus de 17 000 fois et 86 % des utilisateurs ayant répondu à une enquête ont déclaré qu'ils recommanderaient le système à d'autres personnes. Je pense que JusticeBot peut contribuer à aider les individus à résoudre leurs problèmes juridiques, ainsi qu'à renforcer la confiance et l'identification aux institutions juridiques au niveau sociétal en améliorant l'accès à la justice et l'accès à l'information juridique pour le citoyen moyen.Artificial intelligence is one of the most thriving and exciting areas in research and industry. Recently, approaches using deep learning have led to a number of breakthroughs in a range of areas, including computer vision, machine translation, image recognition and generation, and text understanding and generation (such as GPT-4). In this thesis, I investigate if and how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to improve access to justice and access to legal information for laypeople, i.e. people without legal training. The average citizen is often overwhelmed and helpless when dealing with legal problems. They may struggle to understand how the law applies to their situation, and further have trouble using the judicial system to resolve their issue, even if they are aware of their rights. This results in their problems going unresolved or prevents them from benefiting from opportunities available to them. For this reason, I developed and implemented the “JusticeBot” methodology, which uses AI to support laypeople with their legal issues. The resulting tools use a hybrid rule-based and case-based reasoning approach to ask a user relevant questions, analyze their legal situation, and provide them with suitable legal information and similar previous cases related to their particular legal problem. They can use this information to negotiate a mutually agreeable solution, or to navigate the arduous legal process. Thus, JusticeBot is an augmented intelligence tool, enhancing the user’s knowledge level to help them solve their legal problems. I describe the overall methodology and how I implemented it into software tools, e.g. the “JusticeCreator”, an interface to create and update JusticeBot tools. I also elaborate on a deployed JusticeBot tool in the area of landlord-tenant disputes, which is accessible to the public at https://justicebot.ca. This tool has been used over 17k times, and 86% of users responding to a survey report that they would recommend the system to others. I believe that JusticeBot can contribute to helping individuals resolve their legal problems, as well as increasing trust in and identification with legal institutions on a societal level, by improving access to justice and access to legal information for the average citizen