"invest time and money" is important because it's the behavior that the patent system is looking to reward. Otherwise, for the vast majority of things that are

"invest time and money" is important because it's the behavior that the patent system is looking to reward. Otherwise, for the vast majority of things that are patented, people might just say, "eh, why should I research it? If I do, someone else will just steal my idea and do it a little bit better and/or a little bit cheaper." The article, as far as I can tell, never takes into account the possibility that without a patent system, some research won't be done.