Thanks, fletch, interesting. I hold a patent myself, and it was initially rejected on exactly that ground -- that it was supposedly obvious. My patent attorney said that many patent examiners routinely reject all patents on the first attempt, usually the "prior art" or "obvious" grounds, so that they don't have to actually research the patent but instead get supplied with arguments (rather than digging through the patent itself and figuring it out). However, that may be true just for small potatoes like me, not for real companies.

And I agree that matters are not as dire as some might think. There are hardly any combination drugs that someone couldn't initially claim are not "obvious." Patents take incredibly longer than people would think possible. I think mine took 3 or 4 years, and the patent office wasn't nearly as busy then as it is now.