Prophetic examples, sometimes referred to as "paper",
"speculative", "fictitious" or
"hypothetical" examples, are examples that are sometimes
included into a patent specification that describe experiments that
have not yet been performed. There are a number of reasons patent
applicants may consider using them.
In contrast to a working example, which describes work actually
performed or experimental results actually achieved, prophetic
examples may also describe predicted or simulated results (i.e.,
in silico or other modelled data).
In academic circles, and in most contexts, making up data is
considered fraudulent or misleading and is generally frowned upon.
However, this is not the case with patent applications, where it is
perfectly acceptable to supply predictive rather than measured data
(provided it is clearly identified as such), and there may be a
variety of valid reasons to include such examples. There are,
however, some important caveats.
