To create pills that enable old men to have sex or to solve today's energy problems? This is more of a moral judgement than one around the efficacy of patents.

To create pills that enable old men to have sex or to solve today's energy problems? This is more of a moral judgement than one around the efficacy of patents. Are you arguing that patents shouldn't be available at all, or they should only be granted to those that are a suitable fit for society? This sounds dangerous as I can't really think of anyone suitable to make such a judgement. Even in the later case, you still need an enconomic basis for the patent - or more correctly, the R&D required to gain the patent. Even if you're capable to invent a new kind of car, do you have the money to advertise it properly? I don't need to invent a new kind of car - if I came up with a valve arrangement that increased efficiency by x% that would be patentable, and I would profit from it. If this invention, say, could be retrofitted to existing vehicles and reduce emissions - then governments might mandate it's use - and I'd profit from that. I don't think a body such as the government should be guiding research. It's a slippery slope to bureaucracy. What you can do is put in place the right framework - e.g. all cars must comply with an emission standard by X - then you create the economic basis for the right inventions to follow.