No, that doesn't demonstrate that the technique is "trivial", but it does make the requirement that the patent be "non-obvious" much harder to defend. As you n

No, that doesn't demonstrate that the technique is "trivial", but it does make the requirement that the patent be "non-obvious" much harder to defend. As you note, if the first few people to look at the problem come up with the same solution independently, it is dubious that the solution is non-obvious.