This is essentially how research universities work. Research universities do not give away the technologies they develop. They sell or license them for million

This is essentially how research universities work. Research universities do not give away the technologies they develop. They sell or license them for millions of dollars. http://www.google.com/search?q=university+patent+license+million http://www.google.com/search?q=university+patent+license+mil... I believe JesseAldridge above was referring instead to government funding R&D and then simply giving away the technology the way the daguerreotype photographic process was given away. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype Instead of Daguerre obtaining a French patent, the French government provided a pension for him. In Britain, Miles Berry, acting on Daguerre's behalf, obtained a patent for the daguerreotype process on 14 August 1839. Almost simultaneously, on 19 August 1839, the French government announced the invention as a gift "Free to the World".