> IP is one of the very few areas wherein smaller companies can have any hope of leverage over larger ones. Leverage over another isn't the only way to compete

> IP is one of the very few areas wherein smaller companies can have any hope of leverage over larger ones. Leverage over another isn't the only way to compete. If there was no IP, smaller companies would have alternatives such as blatantly copying the larger companies' better product features, while being nimbler to innovate with those ideas, and to blend features from different companies into a new product. Not every small company would be good at that. But some would. Some smaller companies would have more ability to out-innovate incumbents. Of course that already happens, but it could happen more freely without IP. The smaller companies would still have the problem of being noticed, selling their products, and getting investor interest (which I'm told IP helps with), but those problems aren't new.