Yes, the "If it was obvious, someone else would have done it!" argument is a frustrating one. I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. There are an awfu

Yes, the "If it was obvious, someone else would have done it!" argument is a frustrating one. I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. There are an awful lot of supporting developments that go into any sufficiently advanced technology. Patents as they relate to some technologies feel like an odd kind of race, one in which the winner isn't defined by finishing first exactly. Rather it's the act of crossing a non-specific finish line within a very specific window of time then proceeding to tell everyone else that their times will be invalidated if they happened to take the same route.