"A companion per-word chart below shows the decline concentrated in exactly the nonce terms the Federal Circuit has flagged: “unit” and “module” both peak at 2014 and decline th"
Functional claim language in U.S. utility patents from 1976 through mid-May 2026 shows major shifts in drafting patterns. “Means for” collapsed after 1994 and traditional “for [Verb]ing” gerund constructions steadily eroded. “Configured to/for” rose sharply and became dominant, reaching nearly half of issued utility patents, overtaking “means for” around 2008-2009 and surpassing “for [Verb]ing” in 2020. Traditional means-plus-function language fell to under 3% of utility patents, a 95% decline from its mid-1980s peak. A Williamson-targeted “nonce” noun plus functional linker series rose from about 11% in 1976 to about 20% in 2010-2014, then declined to about 16%, with declines concentrated in “unit” and “module.”
#patent-claim-drafting #means-plus-function-35-usc--112f #functional-claim-language #nonce-terms #us-utility-patents
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