You're right, it was a drive by comment, I'm big enough to admit it. My irritation has been building over software patents for years and it is leaking into a lot of my posts, not always a good thing to have anger cloud your thinking.

I did learn one incredibly useful thing from this thread however, was that Boeing has a patent on specific orbital mechanics, you know, the kinds of stuff people use to write papers about in the scientific realm for centuries for free transmission of knowledge. I suppose the next step is actually patenting scientific discoveries, like publishing a theory of Quantum Gravity via the USPTO instead of via Nature or the physics preprint service.