Relaxed IP requirements helped software and hardware develop reasonably fast. Imagine if the big corps like AT&T or IBM had the foresight to patent vital early

Relaxed IP requirements helped software and hardware develop reasonably fast. Imagine if the big corps like AT&T or IBM had the foresight to patent vital early algorithmic research. Or how hardware may have developed if AMD's early reverse-engineering of Intel chips was deemed illegal. Now biotech is still in infancy as far as genetic engineering. Giving a few corporations the right to 'homestead' nature's IP is going to impede startups or small actors to develop the field. It would also prevent development of tech that involves many inter-related concepts, which could be found in different companies' IP pools. That's besides biotech IP trolls or internecine corp trade wars. So we're not talking about farmers, but the ability of this field to develop quickly like technology did in the last few decades. The technological barriers to entry are falling but in their place IP barriers are erected.