It's a tough one. Like everything else, they were created to protect those with money and power. However, there is a legitimate need to protect the large investment of money and time that it takes to develop something new and novel. If someone could just come along and make a cheap copy of what you spent years perfecting, there would be no motivation to do that work.
If patents were much more rare, for truly novel inventions, and they were much shorter-term (i.e. max of 5 years), they would actually be beneficial to society.
Obviously the system has been gamed to protect the powerful. Every system always has been and always will be. The only answer is periodically starting fresh. The problem is this fake, controlled reset they are building up to is not organic, and is also meant to protect and permanently solidify the power of those that already have it.
To be honest, I am not sure if patents are a great legal invention. They hinder the free flow of information.
It's a tough one. Like everything else, they were created to protect those with money and power. However, there is a legitimate need to protect the large investment of money and time that it takes to develop something new and novel. If someone could just come along and make a cheap copy of what you spent years perfecting, there would be no motivation to do that work.
If patents were much more rare, for truly novel inventions, and they were much shorter-term (i.e. max of 5 years), they would actually be beneficial to society.
Obviously the system has been gamed to protect the powerful. Every system always has been and always will be. The only answer is periodically starting fresh. The problem is this fake, controlled reset they are building up to is not organic, and is also meant to protect and permanently solidify the power of those that already have it.
Ok, stealing patents and nullify them is not the way. But thinking of a change how you described it, and debate the pro and con is necessary.