Patents were originally meant to entice people into publishing secret methods for the betterment of public knowledge. The limited monopoly was the carrot on t

Patents were originally meant to entice people into publishing secret methods for the betterment of public knowledge. The limited monopoly was the carrot on the stick to do that, not really meant to be the the ultimate reward of the system. Of course the current patent system is a total joke with companies patenting blatantly obvious ideas left and right and playing the game of "who filed the obvious idea first and/or who has the most lawyers". If there were a patent on the idea of harnessing power from Thomas Jefferson spinning in his grave, that'd be a real valuable one... because he must be spinning REALLY, REALLY fast by now.