Structural Chemistry, Fuzzy Logic, and the Law

Chemistry is generally considered to be one of the exact sciences, which implies that much of the thinking and reasoning can be governed by “always” and “never” laws and rules. However, in practice, much of chemistry involves concepts that invoke general rules with the exceptions to those rules arousing curiosity and generating new experiments and theories that facilitate the progress of chemical science. The lack of precision, in fact, requires a mode of thinking and operating that has been called “fuzzy logic”, not necessarily in a pejorative sense, but rather recognizing the fundamental nature of this experimental science and how it plays out in practice. We provide herein some examples of fuzzy logic in the practice of chemistry and demonstrate how these are manifested in the role and behavior of expert witnesses, particularly in pharmaceutical patent litigations that deal with the solid forms of active pharmaceutical ingredients.