> Without such a system, inventors would keep their work secret under "Trade Secret" protection or just not bother at all. I think abolishing the patent system

> Without such a system, inventors would keep their work secret under "Trade Secret" protection or just not bother at all. I think abolishing the patent system would slow technological progress. Patents are not a black and white problem (either with or without). What I think is the really core problem is that the length of patents must be inversely proportional to the innovation pace of the field they apply - which is the opposite of the current legislation. Patents may be OK "in general", but it's not OK to have a 20 years exclusive in a field where such amount of time represents many generations of products, otherwise it simply is a legalized racket.