Control Vision's patent

Thomas Borchert writes:

I hate to burst the bubble, but CV's cones of safety have been around pretty much since the
first version of their software, which must be at least three years ago.

Is it really just a cone? They don't take wind, turning requirements,
or terrain into account? (They don't handle air data, do they?)

Regardless, I hate that we encourage companies to patent obvious stuff
like this. What does it mean that they just patented something they've
been using for years?

--kyler