If there's money in it, people will do it. Hence, by allowing inventors to secure a temporary patent monopoly, you greatly magnify the profit potential, encour

If there's money in it, people will do it. Hence, by allowing inventors to secure a temporary patent monopoly, you greatly magnify the profit potential, encouraging risk and speculation that might not otherwise be worth the time and capital. Patents are more likely to be harmful because they limit competition and lack of competition hurts customers with higher prices for existing stuff and less possibility to build on stuff that has been done before. Nonsense. You're talking about turning everything into a commodity, which by definition means everything trends towards being the same. Sure, it drives prices down, but it makes improving the product a sucker's game. Suppose your company can make 10,000 widgets a month. My company can make 7,500 widgets a month, but they're twice as good as your widgets because we invested more in widget R&D, and we are able to ask a higher price for them. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to patent my improved widget, and you're smart enough to realize that my widgets are better, so you copy them. Now you're making the same widgets I am, but more of them. Damn, looks like investing in R&D was dumb.