That's the idea of patents as I've understood it. However, I guess it hasn't worked well even before our times when trivial programming solutions, plant seeds,

That's the idea of patents as I've understood it. However, I guess it hasn't worked well even before our times when trivial programming solutions, plant seeds, indigenous herbs, and probably soon-if-not-already DNA are being patented. I happened to browse through the history of steam engine on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power (because pg mentioned it in http://www.paulgraham.com/revolution.html.. http://www.paulgraham.com/revolution.html... :)) and one thing caught my eye: each time some significant steam engine related patent expired the steam engine business expanded and spread rapidly. New ideas were combined with the previously patented ideas and new constructs became commonplace. I think that companies and patent holders, too, realise that patents are rather useless and they would all be better off without them. That is because nobody has successfully lobbied for longer patent periods in the last 100-200 years or so. In contrast, the copyright has been extended tremendously because companies can actually make money because of it and have lobbied for decades to keep Mickey Mouse off the public domain. Makes me wonder.