The mess caused by "obvious" things being patented

[jwg]

The Supreme Court just issued a unanimous decision disallowing the patenting of human genes. It's about time; the idea of patenting something discovered in nature is so ridiculous

Comments

[trawnapanda]

and then again there are the people who claim copyright on "Happy Birthday to You", and say they've got it until 2030 since it was published with copyright notices in 1935 (despite being public and in print decades before). Someone is taking them to court claiming HBtY is/should be in the public domain. I hope she wins, for much the same reasons you cite in patent cases above.