It's not to "incentivize inventors" (you) it's to "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (the US constitution). It comes from the USPTO, for one

It's not to "incentivize inventors" (you) it's to "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (the US constitution). It comes from the USPTO, for one place. It's called the "Enablement Requirement". It requires that you enable other people to make the invention. That's where it comes from, and that's why people always bring it up. "The purpose of the requirement that the specification describe the invention in such terms that one skilled in the art can make and use the claimed invention is to ensure that the invention is communicated to the interested public in a meaningful way." http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2164.html http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2164.html