> And ask yourself the question, exactly how much help are these patent applications in implementing a solution to the given problem to one "skilled in the art"

> And ask yourself the question, exactly how much help are these patent applications in implementing a solution to the given problem to one "skilled in the art"? You're assuming that a patent is "bad" if the solution is obvious given the problem. That's wrong. Patents for new problems with an "obvious" high-level solution are completely legitmate and well-established in every other domain. In other words, the novelty can be in the problem. Why is software different?