Stupid Patent Filings!

I just caught this artice by wired detailing a new patent filed by Microsoft.
This is getting ridiculous, how can the US Patent office keep giving these out? And no, I'm not referring to the prior art by Apple. I mean in general. Let me clarify, I agree with filing patents with certain ideas and procedures i.e. if Intel develops a new way of squeezing a few more ghz out of an outdated processor model then great, they should file for a patent. But for these elements of UI, it's just insane.

That would be like me filing for a patent detailing a glass:

A open-ended cylinder shaped noncrystalline structure for holding and keeping liquid for consumption

And as I stated in my comment on the article itself, data in a box should belong to Microsoft, Visual voice mail shouldn't belong to Apple, nor should bouncing icons on a dock. A better way of representing data is simply that. And it should be open to whoever wants to use it. This whole thing, it's just dumb.