Ragnor:

MikeSkyrme: 

Either way, surely this only enforces my argument that patents are not a waste of time.

Patents are supposed to be non-obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, more than a common sense good idea.

Software patents are like being able to patent maths. Imagine if pythagoras theorum was patented and you had to get permission from a company to use maths! Welcome to software patents...