One person spending a year working on something is not exactly the high end of that equation. Even if one person ends up getting something worth protecting, a c

One person spending a year working on something is not exactly the high end of that equation. Even if one person ends up getting something worth protecting, a company may have been employing hundreds, if not thousand of individuals in an attempt to develop new technology in a space. Additionally, you're not actually considering the all-in cost of programmers. About 5 years ago I heard the total all-in cost of a junior engineer was closer to 250k, and I would imagine it's roughly in the ballpark for computer scientists if not higher.....That combination of numbers gets big fast. I think the conversation should moreso be talking about what makes an idea patentable rather than simply saying whether or not all ideas within a given domain should be exempt.