> Do people tend to learn things from patent filings, or from other sources? When you file for a patent, it usually does not get published to the public for 18

> Do people tend to learn things from patent filings, or from other sources? When you file for a patent, it usually does not get published to the public for 18 months. In those 18 months, the inventors usually publicly announce themselves (they have patent protection, so there's little harm doing so). If they didn't have patent protection, there would be much more resistance to publishing your work.