Personally, I find it outrageous for an academic to demand credit for "inventing" displaying files side by side, searching files by content, and archiving files by time. The Sumerians probably already did this.
Sure, they did it. But they didn't do it on a computer. Then on the internet. Then on a mobile device. They are all completely different issues, worthy of an extra patent or two.
I am just waiting for the next big thing, so I can patent everything all over again. Do you think iPads count as computers or a completely new device?
My first reaction was the same. However, I bet Apple tried to patent these things, too. So it would be sort of balancing justice - you want software patents, let them bite you...
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=XJ4SAAAAEBAJ
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=pcASAAAAEBAJ
Personally, I find it outrageous for an academic to demand credit for "inventing" displaying files side by side, searching files by content, and archiving files by time. The Sumerians probably already did this.