In horse racing, for most people, picking a winner relies on a
large degree of luck. Given the lengthy odds for the horse I picked
in the Barker Brettell
Grand National Sweepstake, mine seems to have run out.
However, for every casual flutter, there are seasoned betters
who carefully and consistently pick winners by studying the form,
analysing the conditions and surveying the field. But even then,
the sure-fire odds-on favourite can still be beaten at the
post.
Likewise, as anybody who has trodden the patenting pathway more
than once will tell you, there is no such thing as a guaranteed
odds-on winning patent. Battles with the patent offices and
unexpected prior art can wreck a promising patent application and
ruin its chances of grant. Most patent applicants only rely on
patent office searches to locate and critique the publications that
form the prior art against their application. Worse still are
documents raised late on in the prosecution procedure,
