As usual, history provides a slightly more useful perspective on patents, and on how their utility is changing along with society. Although the idea of patents

As usual, history provides a slightly more useful perspective on patents, and on how their utility is changing along with society. Although the idea of patents was first introduced a very long time ago, their modern version didn't show up until the 1800s or so. At that time, there were meager tools available to the average citizen, and innovation then wasn't like it is today. It more typically required a disproportionate outlay of resources, especially given that (at the time) labor was relatively cheaper than technology in the southern parts of the U.S. Later, the U.S. underwent the industrial revolution, and innovation moved from profit-motivated individuals to profit-motivated companies; again, patents were seen -- correctly, at the time -- to be fostering the innovation that was advancing America's technological development. But the landscape is much different today. The average individual has at hand resources that would have been remarkable to Ford or Edison, and probably dumbfounding to Eli Whitney. For roughly a month's salary, I might accumulate all of the materials I need to invent a new kind of robot, and if I'm interested in software, then all I need is a computer, some time, and a problem to solve. So, now patents are no longer as justifiably the protectors of innovation, and now the case can be made that they are actually hindering it. Conditions aren't the same now as they always were.