Her scholarship addresses empirical and theoretical problems in intellectual property and innovation law. She takes advantage of her training in physics to explore policy issues such as the value of technical disclosures in patents, the patenting of federally funded research under the Bayh-Dole Act, the polarized public discourse over patents, and the integration of patent law with other levers of innovation policy. She has also written about the potential of online search results to address the evidentiary problem of trademark distinctiveness. Prior to her appointment at Stanford Law School, Professor Ouellette clerked for Judge Timothy B. Dyk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Judge John M. Walker, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.