Chimeric hindsight

I was talking with one of my clients today about how patent law allows multiple references to be combined together. His mind immediately jumped to the mythological Chimera — a fire-breathing creature formed from the body of a lion, head of a goat, and tail of a snake. That struck me as quite an appropriate characterization of many ยง103 invalidity arguments — three things that have nothing to do with one another that are merely cobbled together to make a fire-breathing monstrosity.

I checked the CCPA and CAFC decisions and do not see any references to the mythological Chimera. Perhaps a decision in the future will note that “the section 103 analysis relied upon Chimeric hindsight and is therefore reversed.”

See also [Frankenstraction].

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