I was looking forward to this, based on the number of people here talking about the great reporting, but now that I'm listening on the radio I'm a bit disappointed. They are talking about patents overlapping other patents, but it is clear that they are just going by the titles of the patents and maybe a quick glance at the abstract.
Unfortunately, the title and abstract just tell you the general area of the patent, not the details, and it is the details that matter. You'd expect to see many patents with similar titles, and even similar abstracts, even though the patents might be covering things that are very very different.
Finally listening to it myself. I think they're talking about titles because that's the easiest way to get the ideas across to the listeners. It's not just the reporters who think that all of these patents are for the same thing, it's the guy who analyzes such things as his job.
Unfortunately, the title and abstract just tell you the general area of the patent, not the details, and it is the details that matter. You'd expect to see many patents with similar titles, and even similar abstracts, even though the patents might be covering things that are very very different.