Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
It rewards those that do the inventing because they get the money from selling the patents!
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For the most part they get a pittance compared to the funds generated via licensing and other uses of the patent and that's even assuming that the inventor gets the patent rights, as opposed to the company for whom she labours. The incentive is to get the patent in and then use it to lock down everything else and establish a (limited) monopoly. This has the quite predictable effect of slowing innovation because everything has to be checked so many times to avoid infringement (or, if a possible infringement is found, re-engineered to avoid it). It also has a chilling effect due to fear of litigation and inflates prices due to rent-seeking behaviors on the part of patent owners.