I'm not convinced it was a net plus even 100 years ago. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_broth

I'm not convinced it was a net plus even 100 years ago. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war