Gopher and Archie and some remote identity/finger protocols already did most of the things the interactive web does today long before Mosaic showed up.
There have been many beautiful advances since then in usability, bandwidth, user base, and especially integration with outside services. None of those things constitute inventions in the sense of being technological, novel, and non-obvious.
Which doesn't stop absolutely everything from being patented, usually multiple times. That would require a competent patent office.
The number of patents the patent office receives has increased exponentially over the years and the patent office's resources have barely increased at all. They aren't even allowed to keep all of the patent filing fees they receive anymore, and Congress has dictated in its wisdom that they aren't allowed to let the backlog of unjudged patents grow. So don't blame the people at the patent office, blame our lawmakers.
A competent patent office would not be sufficient to evaluate software patents. The volume is just too great. Imagine trying to evaluate mechanical engineering patents if millions of people carried machine shops around in their backpacks.
There have been many beautiful advances since then in usability, bandwidth, user base, and especially integration with outside services. None of those things constitute inventions in the sense of being technological, novel, and non-obvious.
Which doesn't stop absolutely everything from being patented, usually multiple times. That would require a competent patent office.