"The argument for patents is simple and clear: the alternative is broader use of trade secrets." Yet it falls into the neat, plausible and wrong category of id

"The argument for patents is simple and clear: the alternative is broader use of trade secrets." Yet it falls into the neat, plausible and wrong category of ideas. In reality that isn't what happens, and it is based upon the assumption that ideas are unique and only occur once, when we know that ideas are ten a penny, and it is implementations in practice that we are short of - something that is exacerbated when you have to negotiate the patent troll arena. Trade secrets are not a threat to the advancement of society because they will be rediscovered. Stopping implementations is a threat because that's actually what we want to have cheaper goods and services - which advances society. The X causes Y arguments behind intellectual property laws are classic truth by repeated assertion.