The idea behind patents was (essentially) to protect the inventor against being ripped off by those slower-moving but richer than he. They have become exactly t

The idea behind patents was (essentially) to protect the inventor against being ripped off by those slower-moving but richer than he. They have become exactly the opposite: tools of the rich and the powerful to extract oligopoly rent from those without patents of their own to 'fight back'. It is a completely absurd situation. We would be better off without them.