Female Bodies in the Inventive Legal Imaginary

Abstract This article explores the relationship between depictions of gendered human bodies in patent specifications from an interdisciplinary perspective. It examines over 250 patents granted in a specific patent classification, focusing on how bodies are gendered (or ungendered) in the graphical elements of the applications. Central to the analysis is the way in which female bodies, and by extension, female inventiveness, are minimised in patent law. A fundamental theoretical contribution of the article is its analysis of the distinction between inventiveness and the inventor, examining how the default ‘male’ form becomes naturalised and legitimised in patent law. Although the article is theoretical, in that it considers the aesthetic dimensions of gender in a patent law context, it also offers an important practical reflection. The article presents gender inclusiveness through the conventional inventive vocabulary of patent law-does the invention work equally well on different body types?