I think Diffie Hellman Merkle key exchange was a brilliant idea and an awesome patent. I understand that the Brits had discovered it in secret but didn't have t

I think Diffie Hellman Merkle key exchange was a brilliant idea and an awesome patent. I understand that the Brits had discovered it in secret but didn't have the compute power at the time. That actually didn't invalidate it; the interplay between trade secret and patents is not one sided either way. Diffie Hellman Merkle was assigned to and prosecuted by Stanford as was Larry Page's PageRank patent. I do not think Stanford or other universities (non-practicing entitites really) would develop so much IP if they didn't get something substantial back. Yes, it is the nature of the limited monopoly of patents to both impede and incent. It is the rare patent, Diffie Hellman Merkle key exchange was rare, that is truly amazingly novel. Most patents are incremental and society benefits from the increment.