Only because the system already allows for patents that shouldn&#x27;t exist because they aren&#x27;t novel enough.<p>See, for example:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.let.rug.nl&#x2F;usa&#x2F;presidents&#x2F;thomas-jefferson&#x2F;letters-of-thomas-jefferson&#x2F;jefl220.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.let.rug.nl&#x2F;usa&#x2F;presidents&#x2F;thomas-jefferson&#x2F;letter...</a><p>Jefferson was clearly dead set against the situation you are describing -- granting patents with only incidental modifications to the system.  But then again he would be rolling in his grave if he saw (and had the modern knowledge to understand) the completely inane, obvious (to practitioners of the art) shit we&#x27;ve been granting patents on since about the late 1980s.