Sure, but not for a decade or more. The timescale of patents is simply incompatible with the timescale of software.
Re:When Patents Attack
by MartinCron on Wednesday July 27, 2011 @12:02PM
(#2812706)
I totally agree on that front. Five years seems like a reasonable upper limit to how long software patents should last.
Something like mouse gestures feel like a patentable innovation worthy of a temporary government-enforced monopoly.