It's impractical to multiply two million-digit numbers by hand, but elementary schoolkids know the algorithm to do it. Does that imply that using a computer to

It's impractical to multiply two million-digit numbers by hand, but elementary schoolkids know the algorithm to do it. Does that imply that using a computer to multiply numbers of sufficient size would be patentable? How about a particularly efficient multiplication algorithm that can be demonstrated by hand? How about a linear problem optimization algorithm? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmarkar%27s_algorithm#Patent_controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmarkar%27s_algorithm#Patent_... How about a network optimization problem? http://www.google.com/search?q=network+optimization+patent http://www.google.com/search?q=network+optimization+patent The whole idea of patents in a post-industrial economy is a farce.