Comment Re:those ARE a problem. Mechanisms, not results (Score 1) 263
You can't get a patent on a result if there are obvious ways to achieve that result. If the result is "rank web pages in order of quality", well anyone can think of a dozen obvious ways to do that. For example, you could have people vote on them or track their usage. I don't believe anyone argues that one should be able to patent a result if there's an obvious way to get that result. The scope of a patent's protection can't include anything obvious. When you file for a patent, you have to set out the legal scope of your patent's protection in the claims, and any claims that can be violated by a solution that would be obvious to people skilled in the art to which the patent pertains are invalid.
The main problem is that things that are obvious, like one-click ordering, are getting patent protection.