That's what the law states, in practice, ridiculous patents are granted as a matter of course. And, in practice, most patent infringement lawsuits go down like

That's what the law states, in practice, ridiculous patents are granted as a matter of course. And, in practice, most patent infringement lawsuits go down like this: "We own this patent and have a team of well-funded lawyers to defend it, we've assessed that you and your company are not financially capable of defending yourself and so we are willing to offer you a substantial licensing agreement as settlement. We suggest you take it." [0] Sideways Swinging: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6368227B1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US6368227B1/en [1] Vacation Auto-responding: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9547842 https://patents.google.com/patent/US9547842 [2] A rounded-bezel display: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD670286 https://patents.google.com/patent/USD670286 [3] A tree branch: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6360693 https://patents.google.com/patent/US6360693 [4] Hierarchical folders to organize files on a computer: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8473532 https://patents.google.com/patent/US8473532 [5] A car windshield: https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=D0786157&IDKey=&HomeUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fpdfpiw.uspto.gov%2F https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=D0786157&IDKey... [6] Bilateral and multilateral decision making: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8069073B2/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US8069073B2/en The EFF even has a monthly "stupid patent" post: https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month