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In terms of patents, the goal is to encourage innovation, and the way they do that is through disclosure and limited terms.
We give the patent holder 20 years of protection in return for revealing all of their secrets. A patent must be written such that a practitioner skilled in the art can reproduce the patent. This means that, even when the patent is in force, the concept is published and others can use it to germinate their own ideas, and once the exclusive period ends anyone can make use of the revealed invention on their own. In effect, it protects for a limited time in exchange for an agreement to surrender future rights.
IMHO, this is where current patent practice is failing. In theory an invention must be 'non-obvious'. This makes it in the public interest to grant a limited protection in return for sharing the secret. However many of our patents are quite obvious and not really inventive.
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