> The point of patents is not to protect things that are obvious in hindsight. You might like that to be the case but most of the canonical examples of things

> The point of patents is not to protect things that are obvious in hindsight. You might like that to be the case but most of the canonical examples of things that should be patented are just that sort of thing. For example various patents have been granted for paper clips[0]. If it still isn't obvious how it is done after people see it you could argue that the patent isn't necessary - trade secret would do. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clip