Patents both encourage and discourage innovation. - If I invent something and patent it, I can assure that I am the only one that can benefit from it for a per

Patents both encourage and discourage innovation. - If I invent something and patent it, I can assure that I am the only one that can benefit from it for a period of time; to recoup the costs involved. - If I invent something based on someone else's patent, they can deny me the right to use their patent if they think it would negatively impact them (for example, if my version is better and nobody would buy their version once mine was available). In many cases, it's just not worth bothering to even try innovating in an area because of this (and similar reasons). Patents have both good and bad points. Presenting just the good or just the bad, and pretending it's the only valid view, is disingenuous at best.