clipped from: tech.yahoo.com 
Despite claims that the patent process will be radically reformed, looks like it's business as usual at the good old U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The latest in the battle to see who can register the most absurd, obvious "technology" as a patent goes to IBM, which has won a patent for "mode switching for ad hoc checkbox selection," or, in other words, checking a box.
No attorneys have weighed in on this patent, but it certainly looks frivolous. Though it's not exactly the same as checking a box (but rather dragging your mouse across a series of boxes to select them en masse; imagine drawing a line through a bunch of boxes at once), this is overall not much more original than patenting the Q button on your PC.