Yup, IBM begs employees to patent anything they can. They have entire patent groups to steward unfamiliar employees along the path, and they'll have presentations reminding employees about bonuses they get for successful filings and to try to get anything through because it's harmless to try.

Most people might say this is the defensive patent mindset we live in these days (IBM is not extremely offensive), but one wonders whether this deluge upon the USPTO exacerbates the problem. Granted it could be argued that unreasonable patents would be approved regardless of volume.