The latest development tarball has the new behaviour, so you wouldn't need to apply the patches, just update and see if it makes any difference. Also there's a very small patch there for an issue that's currently blocking rc2. For applying patches in general, look at 
<a href="http://drupal.org/patch">http://drupal.org/patch</a><br><br>Please reply on the issue[1] rather than here so it&#39;s easier to keep track.<br><br>1. <a href="http://drupal.org/node/194590">http://drupal.org/node/194590
</a><br><br>