Well, I do not agree on the patents part.
On my prospective patents are actually the only thing that push innovation.
Innovation is a public good, so it's characterized by the attributes of non-rivalty and non-exclusivity. If so, companies would have no incentive to innovate, in investing in research and development, and the society would simply not evolve.
I think that the problem is another, and you actually touched and pointed it out. Those scumbags that patent something just to block others and get a royalty on it. From a society point of view that don't help anybody and go against innovation and evolution.
In the end, patenting is good, but the mechanism it's not perfect and there are many who take advantage of its flaws.
That is not true, innovation can be crowd funded, like with ICO's in cryptocurrencies, and DAO's.
Therefore patents are not needed.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Yeah sure, that makes sense on a society point of view, but not on a firm's POV.
Achieving a competitive advantage means doing something different from competition, if every company has the same knowledge they will be closed to perfect competition, which firm want that?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Well it's not like they have to livestream their production process, and surveillance is already immoral.
So unless they spy on them or some whistleblower reveals key details about the secrets of the company, I am sure they can have many many advantages over others.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit