The question then is, is this (c) a part of the merit? It seems to me that not entirely so. If this is part of merit then inheriting a factory is also merit of

The question then is, is this (c) a part of the merit? It seems to me that not entirely so. If this is part of merit then inheriting a factory is also merit of the person who inherited it, which contradicts my intuition. Of course, knowledge as such is in public domain, which is a state of affairs I am perfectly happy with. But I guess I can imagine a system where it isn't (just like factories of dead owners are not becoming public domain), so I cannot be completely ignorant to the issue of who owns that knowledge (unless I want to be really poor).