The thing that's legally meant to be patentable is the execution, not the idea. The thing is in a lot of cases, the execution isn't the hard part: Given an e-c

The thing that's legally meant to be patentable is the execution, not the idea. The thing is in a lot of cases, the execution isn't the hard part: Given an e-commerse website having a database full of user accounts that includes their shipping address and credit card information, implement one-click ordering. Given a capacitive touchscreen and UI framework for interacting with it, implement slide-to-unlock. A programmer competent in the use of the relevant technologies can easily implement these requests, and will probably come up with a solution similar to those employed by Amazon and Apple, respectively. That one-click ordering on an e-commerce site was a good idea was actually novel, but there isn't a form of IP protection that's intended to cover mere ideas that are demonstrated publicly.