I anticipate this being downvoted by people who aren't aware of the nuance of the idea here (although, to be fair, that's because the nuance wasn't properly exp

I anticipate this being downvoted by people who aren't aware of the nuance of the idea here (although, to be fair, that's because the nuance wasn't properly explained), so I'm going to explain it: Patents allow smaller inventors a monopoly on their inventions. Without this monopoly, then because of their massive amounts of capital and engineering talent, massive megacorps/conglomerates are able to easily copy (even if imperfectly) most things that you might want to invent, with little recourse from the inventors. (yes, behemoth organizations can still get patents - that's often still a better trade for a smaller inventor) ...that said, I'm still not convinced that software patents are a good idea.