You haven't really addressed gh02t's point. The original (professed) intent of patents was to protect individual inventors. If some other manufacturer finds a

You haven't really addressed gh02t's point. The original (professed) intent of patents was to protect individual inventors. If some other manufacturer finds a cheaper way to manufacture the same thing, they can get a patent on their improvement, and push for some licensing deal once they have that. (This doesn't change the fact that the modern de facto practice of patents is pretty messed up. I'm just saying that there's a good idea behind it.)