Picking and choosing

A common complaint by patent applicants receiving obviousness rejections under 35 USC 103 is that the Examiner was guilty of picking and choosing references to meet claim elements. Pre-KSR, the teaching-suggestion-motivation [tsm] test was designed to cabin this tendency.

Now, Google has been accused of picking and choosing, with a post beginning:

Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.

***Of the USPTO, see also

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/12/illogical-first-office-actions.html