[darkstar999]

> nothing more than what clever and dedicated people could do

_All_ patents are "nothing more than what clever and dedicated people could do".

I'm not defending this particular patent, I just wanted to refute that part of your argument.

[al2o3cr]

Depends on what you read into "clever", I'd say. The standard for novelty that the USPTO uses makes anything "obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the subject matter pertains" non-patentable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_having_ordinary_skill_in...