I think the rate of change of the underlying technology plays a role here.
If you make a new cooking device that's somehow easier, it seems like a patent is a reasonable protection of your innovation. Cooking has been around for a long time, so if you come up with something clever that saves a few minutes, then that must be novel.
However, with technology changing so fast, it seems to change the equation. When good touchscreens came out that would fit nicely on a phone, there was really no "standard" way of using them in that context. So, almost by definition, the first few things that people implement are both new and obvious.
It's not that such things aren't somewhat innovative. But it seems like it's going too far to grant long-term patent protection for such things.
Maybe we need a 3-year version of a patent that can cover fast-changing areas like this? I feel pretty confident that someone would have invented a good UI independently of the iPhone (whether similar to the iphone or not) within about 3 years of the availability of the underlying technology.
If you make a new cooking device that's somehow easier, it seems like a patent is a reasonable protection of your innovation. Cooking has been around for a long time, so if you come up with something clever that saves a few minutes, then that must be novel.
However, with technology changing so fast, it seems to change the equation. When good touchscreens came out that would fit nicely on a phone, there was really no "standard" way of using them in that context. So, almost by definition, the first few things that people implement are both new and obvious.
It's not that such things aren't somewhat innovative. But it seems like it's going too far to grant long-term patent protection for such things.
Maybe we need a 3-year version of a patent that can cover fast-changing areas like this? I feel pretty confident that someone would have invented a good UI independently of the iPhone (whether similar to the iphone or not) within about 3 years of the availability of the underlying technology.