Was Robert Silvers' work sufficiently "nonobvious" to merit a patent? Of course it was. The first time I saw a photomosaic, I thought to myself, "Wow, cool! That's a great idea." I did not think, "Well, duh. I could've done that." If the idea were obvious, photomosaics would have emerged decades ago, long before the first digital photography. Yet, digital cameras were commercially available for 5 years before Silvers patented his algorithm.
Should code be eligible for a patent? Again, the answer is clear. It is intellectual property. Code is something invented, like so many other great innovations, not something discovered, like mathematical formulas. A person generous enough to share their invention with the world deserves to get credit for its creation.
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