This isn't the first software patent it's "The First Pure Software Patent."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_United_S...

Strange, how the "rooting for the underdog" effect makes fighting for software patents a noble act of a single person versus the big ugly faceless judicial bodies.

Yep, quite different than the impression given by the whole patent troll phenomenon.

Imagine if this under dog hadn't gone through so much trouble. The software landscape would be quite different now.